It looks like spring has finally come! And that means it's time to talk about mites. We discuss this topic every year. But the question of what to do if you are bitten, is still relevant.
Mites are small arachnids that parasitize animals (including humans), that is, they simply drink their blood.
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[Image source](https://pixabay.com/en/tick-lyme-disease-mites-bite-1271763/)
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Many people think that mites live on trees and attack them, but this is not so. Ticks actually live in the grass and the victim does not jump from above, but climb from the bottom. So the high boots and the pants stuffed in them protect more reliably than the hood. And light clothing is preferable to dark or camouflage clothing, because these parasites are more noticeable on it. Ticks not only drink blood, but also suffer dangerous diseases - encephalitis and Lyme disease (borreliosis). The causative agents of these diseases live in the saliva of the tick and fall victim to the bite. Both of them have very serious consequences.
## Tick Encephleitis
Tick-borne encephalitis is a virus that leads to inflammation of the brain. The first symptoms of the disease appear about 14 days after the bite. The patient feels pain in the head, aching joints, nausea. Cramps may begin. The temperature rises sharply to 39-40 degrees. The work of the respiratory and circulatory systems may be disrupted. If encephalitis is not detected and cured in time, it can lead to death. To protect yourself from encephalitis, you need to make a series of vaccinations.
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[Image source](https://pixabay.com/en/tick-lyme-disease-mites-bite-2371782/)
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There are two vaccination programs: normal, consisting of three vaccinations and emergency, which includes only two. With a normal program, the first inoculation is recommended in the fall, the second - three to seven weeks after the first, and the third - a year after the start of vaccination. After that, to maintain immunity, the vaccine should be repeated every three years. The emergency vaccination program takes much less time (only two vaccinations, the second one is done one month after the first), but the immunity to encephalitis after such vaccination is established for 1.5-2 months and is maintained not so long as after a normal vaccination program. As you can see, with vaccinations, even on an emergency schedule, you are already late. Now it's pointless to start vaccination.
## Lyme disease
Borreliosis, or Lyme disease is a bacterial disease. It proceeds in three stages. The first is manifested 7-14 days after the bite. At the site of the bite, a red spot is noticeable, which begins to increase and can reach a diameter of 20 centimeters. The first stage lasts about a week. The second stage begins as soon as the bacteria have spread through the body, but it manifests itself only one and a half months after the tick bite. It lasts up to six months.
At this stage, the disease affects the nervous, respiratory and circulatory systems. The temperature of the patient rises sharply, pain in the head starts, nausea, vomiting, aches in the joints - and you can not remember (in winter!), That the cause of all this was a tick bite in the May park. Due to the defeat of the circulatory system, arrhythmia and dyspnea develop, chest pain and dizziness occur. In the third stage, pain is added to the symptoms in the joints.
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[Image source](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:OSC_Microbio_12_02_LymeRash.jpg#/media/File:OSC_Microbio_12_02_LymeRash.jpg)
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With early detection and proper treatment with antibiotics, in most cases, borreliosis ends in recovery. If the treatment is started at a late stage, the disease turns into a chronic, intractable form. Damaged mainly skin, nervous system, heart, joints. This greatly reduces the quality of life and even leads to disability.
## What to do if the tick bites
As you can see, even if you have completed the full course of vaccination against encephalitis, this does not give you the right to relax. Therefore, for picnics and shish kebabs, it is better to put forward in light clothing: it is more visible on it. After the May trip to nature (even in the city park), carefully examine yourself and each other.
It is important to seek medical help in the first two to three days after the bite and conduct a mite study for infection. If it is confirmed that the tick is infected, it is necessary to urgently consult a doctor for emergency prevention for 96 hours (4 days) after a bite.
If the tick sucked, it is better not to pull it out by handicraft methods, but go to the nearest trauma center. There, the mite will be carefully removed and checked. Do not think that the longer this parasite sits under your skin, the higher the likelihood of infection. By no means. If he was a carrier of the infection, he gave it to you at the time of the bite and implantation, and the blood began to drink later.
If you are far away from the emergency room and you have decided to remove the mite yourself, do it carefully. Do not pull it, but turn it. Try not to press. If you squeeze the abdomen too much, more saliva gets into the blood, the risk of getting sick will increase. The extracted tick must be stored and taken to the emergency department or laboratory for analysis. It must be understood that there they will tell you only whether the tick carries dangerous diseases or not. After treatment, we must hurry to the infectious disease doctor.
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[Image source](https://pixabay.com/en/blood-collection-blood-syringe-2722940/)
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If the tick was not detected immediately or it was removed poorly (for example, in parts) - and therefore it was not possible to analyze it, it should not be forgotten that such an incident occurred to you. To confirm or refute the fact of infection in 10-14 days, it is necessary to make a blood test for specific IgM and IgG antibodies to tick-borne encephalitis virus and Borrelia.
If antibodies are found, you should immediately contact an infectious disease specialist and begin treatment. "Immediately" is the same day, not a week later and "if it gets worse." When there are clinical signs of an infectious disease (high fever, headache and muscle pain, weakness, red spots at the bite site), it does not make sense to wait 10 days to detect antibodies in the blood in a few hours or days after the bite - you need to seek medical help urgently.
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###### References for reading:
###### [Lyme disease](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lyme_disease)
###### [Tick-borne encephalitis](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tick-borne_encephalitis)
###### [Tick-borne disease](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tick-borne_disease)
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<center>*Thanks for reading. All images from public domains.*
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