What Are Ticks? How to Identify and Treat a Tick Bite
Every year from June to November is the period when ticks are most active, and news of tick bites is common. If you are accidentally bitten, it can cause fever, accompanied by general malaise, headache, fatigue, muscle aches, and more. So what are ticks? How should a bite be treated? Where do they generally appear?
1. What are ticks? Where do they generally appear?
The tick (pí) is also called a wall louse, turtle-eater, commonly known as dog turtle, grass biedzi, cattle louse, grass tick, dog bean, cattle turtle. In the Sichuan dialect, it is also called bisha (pronounced shà), among other names. It lies dormant in the grass and on plants of low hills and hills, or lodges in the fur of livestock and other animals. When it has not sucked blood, the small ones are only the size of a shriveled mung bean, and some are as thin as a grain of rice; after sucking its fill of blood, they are the size of a plump soybean, and the large ones can reach the size of a fingernail. The anaplasmosis transmitted by tick bites is an infectious disease, and people are generally susceptible to it. Medical staff or their attendants who have close contact with critically ill patients or directly contact patients' blood and other body fluids may also become infected if they do not pay attention to protection.
This parasite is extremely fond of animals with dense fur, especially yellow cattle, and can often be found under the neck and on the inner sides of the four legs of yellow cattle. When numerous, they gather in groups and are very difficult to remove. They are extremely common in rural areas of Sichuan, Yunnan, Guizhou, and other places.
2. How do you identify whether you have been bitten by a tick?
What are the characteristics of a tick bite? How can you quickly identify whether you have been bitten by a tick? In this regard, the editor consulted materials and reached the following conclusion: a tick bite has the following obvious characteristics:
1. Black mole-like: The bitten area looks as if a black mole has suddenly grown there. The tick's front legs and mouthparts bite into the patient's skin and will not let go once attached to the skin, or even bite into the dermis and subcutaneous tissue, leaving only a black rear end exposed outside the skin. It looks like a black mole has grown, which does not occur after a mosquito bite.
2. Obvious redness and swelling: Ticks bite the skin and devour blood, epidermal cells, and skin flakes, so redness and swelling will appear around the tick bite. In other words, the inflammation at the patient's bite site is relatively severe, and the patient may also experience pain, itching, or no sensation at all.
3. Hard texture: Because ticks are beetle-like in nature, the skin surface at the tick bite feels hard to the touch.
3. What should you do if you are bitten by a tick?
In the early stage after being bitten by a tick, we must first make an identification and judgment. Once it is confirmed to be a tick bite, the tick must be removed from the body as soon as possible. So how do you remove a tick? Recommendations:
Ticks often attach to parts of the human body such as the scalp, waist, armpits, groin, and below the ankles. Once a tick is found to have bitten and burrowed into the skin, alcohol can be applied to the tick's body to make the tick's head relax or die, and then the tick can be removed with pointed tweezers, or the part of the tick exposed outside the body can be gently burned with a cigarette butt or incense tip so that its head slowly withdraws on its own. When burning the tick, pay attention to safety and do not pull or tug forcefully, so as not to tear the skin or leave the tick's head in the skin. After removal, use iodine tincture or alcohol for local disinfection, and observe your physical condition at all times. If symptoms such as fever, inflammation and ulceration at the bite site, and erythema appear, seek medical attention promptly to diagnose whether you have contracted a tick-borne disease and avoid missing the best treatment opportunity. Even if no tick bite is found, people returning from travel to epidemic areas should also observe their physical condition at all times. If symptoms such as fever appear, they should remain vigilant about tick-borne diseases in the epidemic area.
“After being bitten by a tick, if it cannot be removed with tweezers or pulled out by hand, we can use some ointments, such as white petrolatum, hand cream, etc. What hospitals commonly give patients is compound triamcinolone acetonide cream, which contains a small amount of hormones, antibiotics, etc. After applying the medicine, there will be some irritating odor, and the insect will let go on its own. In addition, applying some Bactroban ointment, Daweibang ointment, alcohol, iodine tincture, hand cream, etc. to the bite site is also acceptable. If you have anesthetics or lidocaine gel at home, they are also effective, and can make the tick release its front legs and mouthparts, so that it then falls off on its own.”
When a tick is found, whether on the surface of the human body or an animal's body, or free on a wall or the ground, never touch it directly with your hands, let alone crush it. Use tweezers or another tool to pick it up and then burn it to death; if your skin accidentally comes into contact with a tick, especially the discharge after a tick is crushed, disinfect it.
4. How do you prevent tick bites?
1. Every year from June to November is the period when ticks are most active. Because ticks mainly inhabit grasslands and forests, when going out for recreation it is best to spray mosquito repellent on exposed skin and wear long-sleeved clothing with tight cuffs, light colors, and a smooth texture, which can prevent ticks from attaching or biting.
2. In recent years, more and more people have kept pets. On these animals, especially in the ears, between the toes, and along the outer edges of the ears, ticks can often be seen as well. Therefore, to avoid being bitten by ticks, pay attention to cleaning pets promptly, or try to keep your distance from pets.
3. After returning home from a place where ticks may be present, change all your clothes, take a shower immediately, and during the shower pay special attention to whether there are ticks on your scalp, behind the ears, neck, armpits, popliteal area, wrists, groin, and other places with skin folds.
Although ticks taking lives is indeed frightening, as long as we carry out reasonable prevention and control, avoid being bitten by ticks, or effectively prevent the diseases they transmit, then the threat ticks pose to us can be resolved.
5. How do you kill ticks?
There are mainly two ways to eliminate ticks on livestock: one is direct capture, and the other is using chemical drugs to kill ticks. When ticks are found, they should be pulled off and then killed in a concentrated way. When pulling, the tick's body should also be perpendicular to the skin, and then pulled upward, to avoid the tick's false head breaking off in the skin and causing inflammation. However, this method can only be used under the premise of few livestock and sufficient manpower.
As for using chemical drugs to eliminate ticks, commonly used ones include pyrethroid insecticides, organophosphorus insecticides, amidine insecticides, and others. According to the season and the target of application, methods such as spraying and medicated bathing can be selected. However, it should be noted that after long-term use, these agents will cause ticks to develop resistance, so the agents should be used in combination or alternately.
In recent years, genetic control and biological control have begun to be used to eliminate ticks. The former uses radiation or chemical sterilants to make male ticks lose their reproductive capacity, causing the tick population to continuously decline; the latter uses the natural enemies of ticks to kill them. Some parasitic wasps of the hymenopteran family Encyrtidae have now been found to be able to lay eggs in the bodies of some nymph ticks, emerging from the nymph tick's body only after becoming adults, and the nymph ticks die shortly after being parasitized. There are also insects of the family Reduviidae that can also cause ticks to die.
Related news:
Jiangsu: Three people in one family bitten by ticks, two died
Recently, the family of Mr. Song (surname changed), who lives near Tieshan Temple in Xuyi, Jiangsu, could be said to have suffered one misfortune after another, with tick bites causing deaths. First, at the end of May and the beginning of June, his brother-in-law and mother-in-law were bitten by ticks and died. After being bitten by ticks, because they were not diagnosed for a long time at the local hospital, they died of multiple organ failure despite serious illness, leaving the whole family immersed in immense grief. But who could have known that while Mr. Song was handling the funeral affairs for his mother-in-law, his exposed right forearm was also accidentally bitten by a tick, which also sent him on a trip to the gates of hell. Thanks to treatment at Nanjing Drum Tower Hospital, Mr. Song escaped danger.
Why do people become ill after a tick bite?
What exactly is a tiny tick? How can one bite also be fatal? It turns out that ticks carry a terrible virus called severe fever with thrombocytopenia syndrome virus (also called novel bunyavirus). This virus can be transmitted to people through tick bites, causing severe fever with thrombocytopenia syndrome. It is worth mentioning that this disease was first discovered in China.
At present, the domestic epidemic of severe fever with thrombocytopenia syndrome is mainly distributed in many provinces such as Jiangsu, Anhui, Henan, Shandong, Hubei, Hebei, Liaoning, and others. Of course, it is mainly concentrated in rural areas in the mountainous, hilly, and forested areas of the above provinces, and the affected population is mainly people who often work outdoors or are keen on outdoor sports. In addition to China, neighboring countries and regions such as Japan, South Korea, and North Korea also have many case reports. And the approximately 160 patients with severe fever with thrombocytopenia syndrome currently received by Nanjing Drum Tower Hospital mostly come from rural areas at the border of Jiangsu and Anhui, such as Xuyi, Chuzhou, Mingguang, and other places.
A major characteristic of severe fever with thrombocytopenia syndrome is that it shows seasonal onset. The onset season is overwhelmingly from May to November, with May to July as the main peak period, and September as the secondary peak period, with slight differences possible in different regions. The reason is that ticks grow and reproduce in large numbers during this seasonal range and are active in wild environments. Likewise, this is also related to people carrying out extensive production labor and outdoor activities during this season. Since April this year, the infectious disease department of Nanjing Drum Tower Hospital has admitted 17 patients with severe fever with thrombocytopenia syndrome, among whom two patients died after ineffective rescue because they arrived at the hospital too late and their condition was too severe.
After a tick bite, onset can occur from 2 days to 1 month later
Wu Weihua, attending physician in the infectious disease department of Nanjing Drum Tower Hospital, introduced that after a tick bite, a person may develop the disease as soon as 2-3 days later, or may begin within about 1 month, usually around 1-2 weeks. Once severe fever with thrombocytopenia syndrome begins, the most typical course of the disease can be divided into three main processes: the febrile period, the multiple organ failure period, and the recovery period. Most people will present with acute fever, with body temperature generally above 38.0°C, accompanied by chills, poor appetite, fatigue, and muscle aches. In the early stage, gastrointestinal symptoms such as nausea, vomiting, abdominal pain, and diarrhea are predominant. Some patients have bleeding tendencies, manifesting as skin petechiae and ecchymoses, gum bleeding, and bulbar conjunctival bleeding. A small number of patients are critically ill and may develop impaired consciousness, pulmonary hemorrhage, cerebral hemorrhage, gastrointestinal bleeding, and others, and may die from multiple organ failure such as shock, respiratory failure, and disseminated intravascular coagulation. Severe patients often have combined neurological and psychiatric symptoms, with a poor prognosis.
The case fatality rate of this disease reaches 12.7%-32.6%, and there is currently no effective treatment method, only symptomatic and supportive treatment. Elderly patients, those with underlying diseases, and those who receive untimely treatment often have a relatively severe condition after arriving at the hospital, with a poor prognosis. However, most patients generally have a good prognosis after early, timely, and active treatment. A small number of patients may be left with neurological sequelae. Wu Weihua reminds that fever after a tick bite should prompt timely medical attention.