How to identify an encephalitis tick: step-by-step instructions

Good day! A tick bite is always associated with many unpleasant moments. First get the parasite itself, then disinfect the place, take care of disease prevention ... Last - a very important point.

Someone from a tick bite may not have anything, and some pick up serious, fatal diseases. And here the question arises of how to determine the encephalitis tick and distinguish it from the one whose bite does not threaten health. I talk about this in detail in my article!

How to detect an encephalitis tick or not

Now you can often hear about tick bites. Many victims of tick bites ask what an encephalitis tick looks like. So what are encephalitis ticks?

In appearance, it is impossible to say whether an infected tick is or not. On the territory of the Chelyabinsk region, the main carriers of tick-borne encephalitis are ixodid ticks Ixodes persulcatus and Ixodes ricinus. They carry the causative agents of many diseases.

Including tick-borne encephalitis and borreliosis, ehrlichiosis and anapolasmosis. In this case, the encephalitis virus is not found in all ticks. That is, an encephalitis tick is not a special species, but a tick infected with encephalitis virus.

The tick becomes infected by feeding on infected animals, birds. The causative agent can be found in females, and in males, and in nymphs, and in larvae.

Ticks can be confused with some insects. The main difference is that the tick, like all arachnids, has 8 legs, and not 6, like insects. In its life cycle, the tick passes through three stages: larva, nymph and adult (adult tick). Even an adult tick is small in size. Literally 2-3 mm. However, drinking blood, the female encephalitis tick may swell to sizes exceeding 1 cm.

With the act of bloodsucking, the tick injects painkillers, vasodilators and other substances into the human skin, and along with them the pathogens that are in the intestines and salivary glands of ticks.

Tick ​​suction, as a rule, does not cause pain and passes unnoticed. The most favorite places for sucking ticks are the neck, scalp, axilla, chest and inguinal folds.

About 25% of sick people do not indicate the fact of tick suction: it occurs either within a short period of time, or in an area of ​​the body that is difficult to detect.

Encephalitis tick - symptoms, diagnosis, prevention

With the onset of warmth, such a pleasant form of leisure as going out into the countryside becomes accessible to most urban residents. Fresh air, an abundance of greenery, birdsong, the ability to fry barbecue - all these charms can overshadow sober thoughts about the dangers of such a vacation.

After all, spring and the beginning of summer is the most favorable period for the development and reproduction of encephalitis tick. It is a carrier of tick-borne encephalitis - a severe viral infection that poses a threat to life. In addition, the carrier may be infected with another difficult disease - tick-borne borreliosis.

The highest prevalence of encephalitis tick is recorded in the wild, however, the likelihood of meeting him on the playground still exists - after all, there are greens in cities.

What is encephalitis?

The disease belongs to the category of dangerous viral infections. The consequences of infection are psychological and neurological disorders, severe damage to the meninges, central nervous system, and even death. In addition to ticks, the disease can be transmitted by infected rodents.

Infection pathways

Encephalitis infection is possible in 2 ways:

• Transmissible. The virus enters human blood through the saliva of an infected tick. Such a path is the most common;
• Alimentary. The penetration of the virus occurs when consuming fresh milk from cows, goats, sheep. There are known cases of the disease of entire families infected in this way. Normal boiling is enough to eliminate the threat of infection.

Forms of encephalitis

There are 5 forms of the disease:

1. Feverish - a favorable course of the disease, which passes through 3-5 days. ;
2. Meningeal - the most frequent, lasting 7-14 days. ;
3. Meningoencephalitic - less common, but more severe symptoms;
4. Polio - observed in almost a third of cases of infection;
5. Polyradiculoneuritis - develops with damage to peripheral nerves.

Each form has its own symptoms and signs. Although not every tick is encephalitis (only up to 20% depending on the region), and infection does not occur at every bite even with an infected tick, nevertheless, if a sucking parasite or wound from a bite is found, it is necessary to contact a medical institution. The sooner treatment begins, the higher the chances of a complete cure.

Encephalitis Tick Habitats

Virus carriers on the territory of Ukraine and adjacent regions of the middle band are ticks from the genus Dermacentor, one of the mass species common in the Kiev region. In the overwhelming territory of our country, another species of encephalitis ticks from the genus I.ricinus is common, which are competing for dominance.

The predominant habitats of ticks in Ukraine are Polesie, the Crimean mountains, the Carpathians and their foothills. The encephalitic mite prefers a place with dense thickets, tall grass and high humidity. Therefore, when leaving the city, certain safety measures should be followed.

Symptoms of the disease

Signs of infection can manifest themselves to varying degrees in people with different levels of immunity and the amount of virus that enters the body. The symptoms of the disease in humans and animals also vary.

Signs in humans

If the tick was infected, then the first symptoms appear after 7-10 days. (with poor health - for 2-4 days.):

• fever and high t (up to 39.8 ° C);
• weakness and general malaise;
• headache, nausea, vomiting;
• aches in the muscles and joints.

The fever period can last up to 5-10 days. If the disease ends at this, then this is a febrile form in which a person recovers, he has a stable immunity. Very rarely, the course of the disease transforms into a chronic form.

Upon transition to the meningeal form, remission after fever lasts 7-10 days, then the virus penetrates the blood-brain barrier and affects the nervous system. Appear:

1. fever;
2. photophobia and severe headache;
3. stiff neck (violation of tone).

Subsequent stages of the disease lead to severe impairment of the functionality of the brain and central nervous system, often fatal. Their symptoms differ at the location of the lesion:

• Meningoencephalitic: hallucinations, impaired consciousness, epileptic seizures, paralysis;
• Polio: paralysis of the hand and neck muscles in a persistent form;
• Polyradiculoneuritis: the appearance of "goose bumps", lethargy and pain in the limbs, severe pain in the front of the thighs and groin.

Encephalitis tick - signs in animals

In most cases, even when bitten by an infected tick, a pet (dog or cat) will not get sick - these animals have a stable immunity to the disease. Only in case of weakening of the body can infection occur. The first signs appear after 2-3 weeks:

1. heat;
2. paralysis of the lower extremities;
3. cramps
4. hypersensitivity and pain in the neck and head;
5. inappropriate behavior.

The bite site can be found immediately after a walk - in the form of a dense skin growth with a yellow, gray or pink color. For dogs, in case of symptoms, euthanasia is recommended, since the prognosis of treatment is unfavorable.

If a bite is found, a veterinarian should be visited as soon as possible - qualified assistance in any case will minimize the possibility of unpleasant consequences.

Encephalitis Diagnostic Methods

A complete diagnosis of the disease is based not only on laboratory tests. When making a diagnosis, the following are taken into account:

• Clinical manifestations: all the symptoms that the patient describes, the time of their appearance and sequence are important;
• Epidemiological data: information about the area of ​​residence, professional activity, food consumption, facts of a tick bite, as well as attempts to extract it. These data are important for differentiation with other diseases;
• Laboratory studies: PCR methods, serological, molecular biological and virological methods. For research, blood and cerebrospinal fluid are taken.

A correct diagnosis can be made only after a comprehensive examination, because the symptoms of the disease can be similar to signs of influenza, a central nervous system tumor, typhus, etc.

Encephalitis Treatment

Effective treatment of the disease is possible only in a hospital where constant medical monitoring will be carried out. The methods of therapy for humans and animals are fundamentally different.

Treatment of people. Among the main points that are mandatory for the treatment include:

1. Bed rest. For the entire period, the patient is prescribed hospitalization and strict bed rest;
2. Antiviral therapy. In the early stages: within 3 days. intramuscular injections of anti-encephalitis tick-borne gamma globulin are carried out. In severe forms of the disease, ribonuclease (an enzyme preparation from cattle pancreas) and interferon preparations are used;
3. Symptomatic Therapy Its purpose is to reduce the intensity and eliminate the severe manifestations of the disease.
4. Treatment of children is carried out only in infectious diseases hospitals, because the children's body is weaker. At the same time, detoxification therapy and dehydration are added to the described methods in order to eliminate tissue swelling.

Animal treatment

Since pets are immune to encephalitis, treating them even with an infected tick bite reduces the symptoms. The success of therapy depends entirely on the general state of health and the stage of detection of infection. Therefore, do not neglect preventive examinations or unscheduled visits to the veterinarian when alarming symptoms appear.

Effects of an Encephalitis Tick Bite

The severity of possible complications depends on the level of immunity and the amount of virus that has entered the bloodstream.However, timely diagnosis and the start of treatment are no less important. In most cases, complications of encephalitis are only partially eliminated, and a fatal outcome is possible. The consequences of infection can be:

• in adults: with the initial forms (febrile and meningeal) and timely treatment, a complete recovery is possible. If lesions of the nervous system are present, then residual phenomena in the form of paralysis and paresis, mental disorders are possible. In severe cases - death;
• in children: because of weaker immunity, irreversible complications often arise - atrophy of the shoulder girdle, flaccid paralysis of the hands, muscle twitching, carriage of the virus. About 10% die in the first week;
• in animals: in sick dogs, immunity decreases and the activity of the central nervous system is impaired, so most often such animals are euthanized.

Encephalitis Prevention

Preventive measures in areas endemic for the disease should be regular and followed very carefully.

Prevention in adults. All preventive measures are divided into specific and non-specific.

Specific:

1. Standard vaccination. After the first dose administered in the fall, the vaccine is repeated after 1-3 months and after a year. Subsequent revaccinations are carried out every 2 years;
2. Accelerated vaccination. The first dose is administered in the spring with the activation of insects. Revaccination - after 2 weeks. During this period, it is recommended to avoid contact with ticks, because immunity is only forming;
3. Emergency prevention. It is carried out if the fact of a bite is recorded and only in a medical institution. The victim is given an injection of anti-tick-borne immunoglobulin, iodantipyrine and remantadine are used as additional drugs.

Vaccination is contraindicated in:

• exacerbation of non-infectious chronic diseases (tuberculosis, stroke, diabetes mellitus, hypertension, etc.);
• pregnancy
• infectious diseases;
• allergic reactions;
• autoimmune pathologies;
• severe somatic diseases (damage to the liver, kidneys, heart, blood diseases, thyrotoxicosis);
• acute reaction to previous vaccination.

Nonspecific:

1. Compliance with special rules: do not go to bed and do not sit on the grass, park parking lots in places without grass cover or in pine dry forests, inspect the body and clothes when returning from the forest, do not bring clothes, plants or other objects into the living room in which they can sit ticks;
2. Wearing special clothing (for areas with increased risk of infection). If not, wear clothes made of smooth light fabrics, carefully tuck pants into socks or knee-high socks, the cuffs on the arms and collar of the shirt should fit snugly to the arms and neck. If there is no hood, wear a scarf or hat;
3. Use of personal protective equipment: chemical repellents and acaricidal preparations (only for clothes, skin contact is unacceptable). The use of such funds is carried out strictly according to the attached instructions.

Prevention in children

For children, the principles of prevention differ little from measures for adults:

• The first vaccine is given at the age of 1 year, if emergency vaccination is necessary, the dose of the main drug is halved from an adult;
• Increased attention is paid to non-specific personal protective equipment: the use of children's repellents, the proper wearing of clothing, and regular inspections.

As well as adults, vaccinations for children are given only in a hospital and in the absence of contraindications: an acute reaction to a previous vaccination, infectious diseases, noncommunicable diseases with exacerbation, age up to 12 months.

Animal Prevention

Dogs, unlike cats, are on the street daily, so they are at high risk. However, they are not recommended to be vaccinated due to insufficient knowledge of the consequences. In addition, during vaccination, false symptoms of the disease may appear, which will hide the onset of this infection.Therefore, it is worth paying close attention to non-specific measures. These include:

1. Mite collars. They contain special substances that interfere with the parasite's attempts to gain a foothold on the skin;
2. Special drugs against ticks: sprays, drops, tablets;
3. Inspection after a walk is the most effective method, although the most time-consuming.

Going for a walk and outdoor recreation, do not forget to spend a few minutes on prevention - perhaps this will protect you, your loved ones and pets from the worst consequences.

How to identify an encephalitis tick by appearance and other signs

If earlier people, going out for a walk, picnic in the bosom of nature or into the forest, were wary of wolves and other predatory animals, now they are ticks. And this is more than justified.

One inconspicuous bite can carry a dozen unpleasant, and sometimes even fatal consequences. This does not mean that every bloodsucker is a carrier of tick-borne encephalitis. What types of ticks are dangerous and whether it is possible to assess the health risk by external signs, should be considered in more detail.

What ticks carry encephalitis

Encephalitis is an infectious, allergic and toxic brain damage. The disease causes the neurotropic tick-borne encephalitis virus. Severe complications of acute infection can result in paralysis and death.

The carriers of the virus pathogen in nature are encephalitis ticks, the peak of activity of which occurs in spring and early summer.

What does an encephalitis tick look like?

The parasite looks like a small spider with a flat body of brown or brown color. This is a classic description of all bloodsuckers of this type, since there is no separate species that carries the virus. In total, there are about 600 varieties of parasites; in the territory of our vast homeland, only two are dangerous - canine and taiga species.

For its safe living, relatively humid at least 80% and warm weather + 18-30 ° C are required. Deciduous and mixed forests with high grass vegetation, pastures, wastelands, forbs, urban parks are an ideal habitat. In the coniferous taiga it is not, since a humid microclimate and the presence of hosts are the main conditions for maintaining a bloodsucker.

This type of parasite is three-hosted. There is a host for the larva, nymph and adult, which they “feed on”.

Larvae and nymphs prefer small and medium-sized animals, while adult individuals prefer cattle and large fauna representatives. The parasite does not "disdain" and man. The insect is small 2-5 mm long with three pairs of legs with a flattened body from the back and a very small head.

The body is egg-shaped and dark brown with a protective shield. Only adult females attack and after saturation, its body swells up to 1 cm in volume. Regardless of the areas in which the insect lives, it is a carrier of diseases such as encephalitis, borreliosis (Lyme disease), tularimia and Marseille fever.

Infection of a person occurs during the bloodsucking of virus-phrasing parasites. Transmission of the pathogen of encephalitis can occur in the first minutes of sucking a bloodsucker to a person. Infection through the digestive system is also possible with the use of infected raw cow or goat milk.

Taiga tick (Siberian) - the second representative of the ixodidae. Distribution area - Siberia and the Far East. It is these regions that annually account for the frequency of complaints of bites by the population.It lives in spruce and mixed forests, occurs in thickets of shrubs and meadows, in small-leaved forests and plantings, summer cottages, in parks and public gardens of cities.

It is necessary to understand that the tick prefers tall and dense grass, sometimes it climbs on the lower branches of trees. The peak activity of an adult female falls on May-June, after laying eggs she dies. With the beginning of autumn, larvae and nymphs become more active.

The taiga tick feeds on blood, attacking warm-blooded mammals (wild and domestic), people. Larvae and nymphs bite small rodents and insectivorous birds. Only adult individuals (females) attack a person, extremely rarely - nymphs. It is the carrier of the same diseases as its European neighbor.

How to understand that a tick is infectious

The most common question a person asks is how to determine an encephalitis tick. It is noteworthy, but in appearance it will not be possible to answer the question of how to recognize a tick, "sick" with encephalitis. External signs do not allow to distinguish an ordinary bloodsucker from an infected one.

The body size of the insect also does not indicate disease. Parameters depend on age and maturity. The peculiarity of all blood-sucking parasites is that when saturated with blood, they seem to swell and increase in volume.

How to “on the spot” determine whether the tick is infected with encephalitis

Every spring, a new season of picnics and other entertainments in the lap of nature begins. One of the dangers that lies in wait for a person in the forest - ticks. The problem is not only that it is unpleasant to pull out a sucking tick from itself - it can also turn out to be a carrier of encephalitis.

Encephalitis is a serious illness that affects the nervous system and can lead to death. If you pick up a tick, it is important not to throw it away, but to give it for analysis to find out how it could infect you.

To determine whether the tick was a carrier of encephalitis, scientists from several Russian institutes developed a new method that does not require sophisticated equipment, and tested it in laboratory conditions.

“The work was done in collaboration with colleagues from Novosibirsk, Omsk, Moscow. We got an artificial protein with biospecific and luminous parts. The biospecific part is responsible for binding to the virus; it was obtained at the Institute of Chemical Biology and Fundamental Medicine of the SB RAS in Novosibirsk.

The luminous part of the protein is the Renilla muelleri marine soft coral luciferase enzyme, which was obtained in our laboratory, ”explained Lyudmila Frank, leading researcher at the Photobiology Laboratory of the Institute of Biophysics, SB RAS.

The researcher emphasized that the new method has so far been tested only in laboratory conditions on ticks specially infected with encephalitis virus, so scientists knew exactly where ticks are carriers of the virus and where are healthy individuals.

In the beginning season, Frank and her colleagues plan to test their method on ticks that can be picked up in the forest. To test the effectiveness of the new method in the field, the analysis will be carried out simultaneously using existing certified methods and a new one.

“Before declaring it as working and suitable for clinics, we naturally need to conduct serious tests,” said Frank.

Now the most reliable diagnosis of this kind is carried out by the method of reverse polymerase reaction in real time. It requires highly qualified personnel and special laboratory conditions.

“Standard epidemiological laboratories indicate the duration of the analysis - a day.It is relatively inexpensive - about 350 rubles, analysis kits are produced including by Russian companies. Our method is a routine immunoassay, without any special requirements, ”the researcher explained.

“The ideal defense, if you want to know my opinion, is immunization, that is, vaccinations. Because immunoglobulin injections that make people after a tick bite, unfortunately, are ineffective, ”said the researcher.

Causes of a tick bite in humans

Ticks are bloodsuckers, so they just wait, as if to crawl onto someone and eat well. And if I could eat myself, but here's the bad luck - ticks carry dangerous diseases. If you have been bitten by a sick bloodsucker, he may transmit the disease to you.

Experienced tourists know where danger lies, we will try to remember. A tick bite can be earned in several ways:

• if you visit mite-endemic regions, forests and parks (most infectious ticks in Siberia, the Volga region and the Urals);
• if you walk in such regions in open clothes. The tick easily creeps into a secluded place on your body and sticks for several hours;
• if you talk closely with animals (dogs, cats), which often carry ticks, or people: they can bring a bloodsucker on their clothes, in a bouquet of flowers or on branches.

Let's say you gathered in the woods in the Urals. Be sure to dress so that the skin is as closed as possible, for example, tuck pants into socks, and sleeves into gloves. So the tick will be difficult to get on the skin. These bloodsuckers usually sit in the grass and cling to their legs.

Once on a person, ticks look for places with thin skin, so they are often found in the groin, lower back, in the armpits, behind the ears and on the neck, as well as in the hair on the head.

What does a tick bite look like in a person?

After going to nature, examine your skin, and wherever you can, let your friends check. Finding a tick bite is especially easy if the bloodsucker is still in place. As it saturates, it gets thicker, so it's difficult to view it. And if he already ate and fell away, what other signs of a tick bite are in a person?

- The fact that you were bitten by a tick can be understood by the red rounded spot on the surface of the skin. Rarely, the shape is oval or with uneven edges, ”explains Olga Fedorenko, a general practitioner who leads the Instagram channel doc.fedorenko. - Additional signs of a tick bite in humans include swelling, rash, and itching. In this case, pain usually does not occur.

Itching and other signs of a tick bite in a person occur in response to bloodsucker saliva entering the wound. Often such symptoms are observed in allergy sufferers, children, the elderly, and in those whose immunity is weakened. In this case, the allergic reaction to the bite can be quite strong, but its symptoms can be removed with the help of antihistamines.

First aid after a tick bite

If you find a sucking tick on your body, the first thing to do is remove it. It is best to entrust this matter to specialists: contact the emergency room at the clinic.

If this is not possible, we pull out the tick ourselves, the main thing is to prevent its head from coming off and staying in the wound. This is not so simple, because the tick holds very tightly. Crush it, too, in no case impossible - the danger of contracting any disease from this will only increase.

Before removing a tick, arm yourself with alcohol or chlorhexidine to treat a tick bite in humans.It’s good if you have at hand a special medical tweezers for extracting arachnids, but a loop made by yourself or a “vacuum” syringe will fit.

How to pull out

A person has understood the signs of a tick bite, the bite itself has been found, now the bloodsucker needs to be pulled out. We treat the hands, tweezers and the bite site with alcohol or chlorhexidine.

Grab an insect with tweezers as close as possible to its head and to your skin, respectively. Slowly turn the tick about 180 degrees, perpendicular to the skin, making unscrewing movements. More turns may be required to remove the bloodsucker, the main thing is do not rush or pull.

When the tick is removed, treat the bite site with alcohol or any other analogue again. Place the extracted tick in a small glass container and close tightly.

Take the tick to the laboratory to find out if it was a carrier of any disease. If there are no tweezers, use a woolen thread or a lasso pen, - advises the general practitioner Olga Fedorenko. - It is also possible to evenly cut off the top of the syringe, attach it to the bite and pull out the tick under pressure.

What to process

First of all, remember that the tick should not be lubricated with oil or cream in the hope that it will come out by itself. Count on yourself better.

You can treat a tick bite in a person with soap and water, and then an antiseptic will go over it. You can use alcohol or chlorhexidine, which is sold in any pharmacy.

As an option, 5% iodine is suitable; cologne is any disinfectant that is at hand. If the proboscis of the tick has broken and remains in the skin, do not try to pick it out, it will come out after a while.

Where to go

If the goal is to remove the bloodsucker, you can contact the nearest emergency room. Specialists will carefully get the tick, and you just have to show the "pet" to the laboratory staff.

To do this, put the removed tick in a clean dish, test tubes, jars, vials will fit. It is better if it is wet in this container. To create a comfortable environment for the tick, place, for example, a cloth moistened with water. In this form, the tick must be delivered to the laboratory within two days.

Each region has its own organizations responsible for research of this kind. Laboratory addresses can be found in Rospotrebnadzor. Typically, studies are carried out by specialists from the regional “Hygiene and Epidemiology Centers”. They will check your tick and give the results - sick / not sick and than sick. It usually takes one to two days.

It will be more convenient for you if the selected clinic checks for both diseases at once. Another thing is when a tick transmits a particular virus to a person. There are many diseases that they suffer, but we will dwell on the main ones:

1. Tick-borne encephalitis. This is an infectious viral disease that usually affects the central nervous system. The incubation (hidden) period of encephalitis lasts up to two weeks, but can last even two months. A disease always begins acutely. The first symptoms of encephalitis: chills, headache, a sharp increase in temperature to 39 degrees, nausea, vomiting, muscle pain. Among the possible consequences of this ailment are neurological and psychiatric complications, paralysis and even death.
2. Borreliosis, or Lyme disease. Another infectious disease that affects the nervous system, heart and joints. The incubation period usually lasts 1-2 weeks, but may be shorter or longer. The first symptoms of the disease, like encephalitis, resemble the flu: headache, muscle pain, fever. Lyme disease is characterized by stiff neck muscles.Further - worse, sleep and memory disorders, meningitis, facial paralysis, arthritis can begin. If you do not treat borreliosis, you can become an invalid, or even die. And if you start treatment on time, then the prognosis is very favorable.
3. Ehrlichiosis is a bacterial infection that causes kidney and respiratory failure. Symptoms of infection are noticeable 1-3 weeks after a tick bite. For ehrlichiosis, characters include headache, fever and chills, abdominal pain. If left untreated, the abdominal organs and nervous system will suffer. In severe cases, death is possible.
4. Anaplasmosis is a blood disease. It develops 3-21 days after a tick bite. The disease is characterized by an acute onset - severe fever, weakness, headache and muscle pain. In addition, blood pressure decreases and heart rate drops.
5. Typhus is a disease that provokes a rash on the skin and affects the lymph nodes.
6. Tularemia is a bacterial disease that affects internal organs.

What is a tick bite dangerous?

In itself, a tick bite in a person does not pose a serious danger, the main risk is infections that the arachnid can reward its victim. Most of these infections respond well to treatment, but only in the early stages.

Therefore, it is so important to diagnose them as soon as possible. Well, if you still have the same tick, because if it is infected, the doctor will be able to take preventive measures. It will be possible to find out if you are infected only two weeks after the bite, only then antibodies to viruses will appear in the blood, namely they serve as a marker of the disease.

- Ticks are examined by PCR for six infectious diseases. If an infection is found in it, emergency prevention is carried out. From encephalitis - the introduction of immunoglobulin, from borreliosis - a course of antibiotics, - explains Olga Fedorenko, a general practitioner. - You also need to donate blood for tests: for encephalitis and borreliosis - no earlier than 10 days after the bite.

If you capture the disease at an early stage, there is every chance to be cured safely, but if you miss the moment, you can wait for serious complications, the worst of which is death.

What to do if you haven’t pulled out the whole tick

Imagine that you overestimated your capabilities and were unable to pull out the whole tick. His head or proboscis remained in the wound. In this case, treat this place with an antiseptic and look for the nearest emergency room. Experts will help you extract the remains of a bloodsucker and give recommendations on where to take it and what tests to take.

How to distinguish an encephalitis tick from a common (non-infectious) parasite

It is not so simple to distinguish an encephalitis tick from a common one, however, the solution to this problem becomes critically important if the bite occurred in an epidemiologically disadvantaged region. Indeed, if the parasite is encephalitis, then with some probability it could transmit to the person the causative agent of tick-borne encephalitis and, possibly, at the end of the incubation period, the patient will develop a disease with all its formidable symptoms.

If a person is bitten by an uninfected tick, then no complex actions are required. It is enough to properly remove it from the skin and disinfect the wound. This is much easier than preventing encephalitis, and certainly safer than treating this disease.

So how do you determine if the tick that you managed to extract from the skin is encephalitis or not? Let's figure it out ...

Is it possible by external signs to find out that the parasite is a carrier of tick-borne encephalitis virus

Just in appearance, it is impossible to distinguish an encephalitis tick from one that is not a vector of infection.The presence of the virus in the body of the parasite does not manifest itself externally - neither in the form of the body, nor in color, nor in behavior. Infected ticks have no obvious signs of infection.

If an encephalitis tick and an ordinary tick are placed next to each other, both of which will belong to the same species and will be at the same stage of development, then no external differences between them can be found. Moreover, even a magnifying glass or a microscope will not help to do this, that is, it will not work to distinguish such individuals at home.

In other words, it’s not easy to find out whether the tick is encephalitis in nature. This cannot be done even by an expert acarologist who is well able to determine the types of ticks and distinguish them from each other.

In fact, the established tick-borne encephalitis carriers are 14 species of ixodid ticks that are quite similar to each other in appearance, but also have certain features of appearance and color, which make it possible to distinguish them from each other and from other species that do not tolerate the causative agent of the disease. Of these 14 species, the main carriers of infection that infect humans, in the vast majority of cases, are two:

• Dog tick (aka European forest tick);
• and not much different from the Taiga tick.

The first is responsible for cases of encephalitis infection in Western Europe, Ukraine, Belarus and the west of Russia (for example, in the Kaliningrad region), the second - in Siberia and the Far East. This means that a specific species - an encephalitis tick - does not exist. There are several species, various morphologically and ecologically, that the virus can carry.

On the other hand, not even the most malicious virus carriers are contagious; according to statistics, only about 6% of those species that carry encephalitis are infected.

That is, for 15 individuals representing these species, which actually belong to the “encephalitic” cohort, only one individual will actually represent an epidemiological danger.

Moreover, according to the same statistics, only 2 to 6% of bitten people become infected after being bitten by infected ticks without taking appropriate measures. Therefore, in those regions where there is a risk of infection with tick-borne encephalitis, out of 10 thousand bites, a maximum of 24 will lead to the development of the disease.

According to statistics collected in hospitals, the average incidence of tick-borne encephalitis among all bitten and seeking help people is approximately 0.50-0.55% (about 5 people per 1000 bitten). Given the number of people who do not go to the doctor after a bite, this indicator is actually even lower - approximately the same 0.2-0.3% (20-30 infected per 10,000 bites). For tick-borne borreliosis, this indicator is 1.5 times higher - about 1.3% for people officially registered when going to the hospital.

This, in turn, means that even a tick bite that is definitely a carrier of the virus will not necessarily lead to infection.

The main conclusion can be made: by external signs, one can never say whether a tick is infected or not, and even more so it will not be possible to immediately understand whether a parasite has infected a person with a bite. The same is true for cases when the parasite is removed from the pet - according to external signs, it will not work to understand whether the infectious tick has bitten a dog or cat.

Nevertheless, by the appearance of a bloodsucker, it is possible to determine the probability (not a fact, but precisely a chance) that it is encephalitis. To do this, you need:

1. Assess the region in which the bite occurred;
2. Understand that the parasite belongs to the family of ixodid ticks;
3. If possible, determine whether he belongs to the dyad of the main carriers - this is either a dog or a taiga tick.

Simply put, if it was possible to determine that an ixodid tick bit a person in an area that is epidemically dangerous for tick-borne encephalitis, then the likelihood of infection is no longer zero.

If, upon examination of the parasite, it was possible to recognize a dog or taiga tick in it, then the likelihood of infection is even higher. Next, we will examine by what signs it is possible to recognize a possible tick-borne encephalitis carrier ...

Differences between species of tick-borne encephalitis from related species

The first task in determining the type of tick in our case is to understand that it belongs to the ixodid tick family. They have a fairly characteristic appearance with a flattened body from the back and a very small head. Ticks from other families differ from Ixodidae in body shape.

Encephalitis is transmitted only by ixodid ticks. If in a region with high epidemiological danger it was just such a parasite that bit, it means that there is a chance that it could infect a person with a virus. There is even more chance of becoming infected with a bite if either a taiga or a dog tick has been removed from the body. Outwardly, they are very similar to each other.

It is practically impossible for a non-specialist to distinguish them, since the reliable differences between them are too insignificant - these are the structural features of the proboscis and body shield. But to distinguish between these species does not make sense: both of them with the same probability can be carriers of infection.

In the European region people are mainly affected by a dog tick, beyond the Urals - by a taiga tick. For this reason, the dog tick is also called European forest, and taiga - Siberian.

You must also be able to distinguish ticks from some blood-sucking insects. In particular, in the forest and taiga zones with ixodids, you can easily confuse bloodsucker flies, the most common and famous of which are bloodsucker deer (it is also called a moose tick). These flies attack various large animals and humans, and tend to climb into their hair and move between them. Bloodsuckers chase their prey in flight, but clinging to wool or skin, they drop their wings and begin to suck blood - such a wingless individual is easily confused with a tick.

The only way to find out if the tick is encephalitis or not

Surely you can find out that a tick that has bitten a person is infected with the tick-borne encephalitis virus, only by the results of a special laboratory study. The essence of this study is simple:

• A bitten person saves the parasite in any way (preferably alive - so the analysis can be carried out within a few days after the bite), put it in an empty bottle, a matchbox or even in a plastic bag, and take it to the laboratory;
• In the laboratory, using special microbiological methods (mainly an ELISA test, less often a PCR analysis), certain tissues of the parasite are examined and the presence of tick-borne encephalitis pathogen in them;
• If the pathogen is detected - conclude that the tick is contagious. If the pathogen is not detected, respectively, the parasite is recognized as not infected.

Such studies are very effective. It is very easy to detect viral RNA in tick tissues using affordable and inexpensive methods. Such analyzes are carried out in a few hours and give a result with a high degree of accuracy. They also make it possible to determine whether a person needs emergency prevention of the disease.

According to a study conducted in the clinics of Irkutsk, the prevention of tick-borne encephalitis in reality requires only 12% of people affected by bites, regardless of how many parasites have bitten a particular person.

It should be remembered that even if the bloodsucker is contagious, the probability of developing a disease in a person bitten by him without taking any measures is about 2-6%. That is, even after a positive test result of a tick in a laboratory, it is not at all necessary that the disease will develop. Nevertheless, the risk of its development is a sufficient reason for taking emergency measures.