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Latvian epidemiologists have reported that tick activity has decreased this summer due to the heat as they need moisture. However, the incidence of tick-borne diseases in Lithuania remained the same as last year. Experts say the ticks have not gone anywhere.
M.Žygutienė, a specialist at the National Center for Public Health, said the statistics were not reassuring. This year, more than 500 cases of Lyme disease have been identified and around 150 people have been diagnosed with tick-borne encephalitis, although this year the ticks woke up much later.
In previous years, its activity began in March, and this year the spring was late and cold. “Despite this trend, ticks have not disappeared anywhere, but lately we have talked much less about the dangers they cause, because other things have caught our attention,” admitted M. Žygutienė.
Although the summer is coming to an end, the risk of suffering from ticks remains until the end of autumn. Especially many people suffer from these arachnids at the beginning of the mushroom season, and the mushrooms germinate in late fall.
– Didn’t you hit the heat record this summer? Can we feel bolder in nature?
– I think anyone who is willing to spend time in nature should think about whether they have done everything possible to prevent ticks from being absorbed.
Perhaps those who have already been vaccinated against tick-borne encephalitis may be less concerned, but other steps must be taken to prevent Lyme disease, as a vaccine against the disease has not yet been developed.
Ticks not only breed in forests, but also like to be around people, such as in city parks, metropolitan sleeping areas that are next to wooded areas, as well as in country gardens. and even on the beaches.
– We can also see uncut meadows in the city. Help ticks survive?
– Recently, more and more people want to admire the rarely cut meadows, but do not think that such a thicket is a refuge for ticks and rodents that spread them.
People who support natural meadows are happy to enrich the city’s green spaces in this way, but they don’t realize how much it can cost the sick.
Even the presence of birds near humans affects the spread of ticks, as the wings also help the ticks appear in different places.
Pets, especially neglected cats that go to the meadows to play, can bring blood-sucking parasites into the apartment yard.
A soggy mite does not release its host for a long time because it feeds on blood for several days or even a week. No one knows where it will fall, where the eggs will help, a tent explosion can form near the house.
– By removing a live tick, can you find out what it is infected with?
– If a sucked mite has been previously detected, it is recommended to carefully remove it, place it in a glass jar and return it to the laboratory for examination.
I doubt that such a tick test can be useful, although for some it may guarantee a more restful sleep, but the truth is that the parasite that has attached to the skin must be removed immediately.
Whatever the lab’s response, there are only two options: the person is infected or not.
It is possible to know this about 14 days after ingestion of the mite, which is the average incubation period. For various reasons, tick-borne diseases in some people manifest themselves a little later.
It can even determine how many Lyme disease borelia the tick has, so symptoms of the disease can become apparent within a month.
If you have any signs of the disease, it is necessary to consult a family doctor, so it is important to monitor your body regularly.
– Reddened skin can also be due to a mosquito bite, and what mark does the mite leave?
– If a person has detected a tick, he should be concerned about his health and not take it by hand.
Lyme disease is often caused by wandering redness that forms at the site of a tick bite. Typical symptoms of tick-borne encephalitis are headache, neck pain, and fever. Such ailments are often similar to colds, which is why people often blame air conditioners or drafts.
Serological tests are necessary to detect tick-borne encephalitis, and many doctors diagnose Lyme disease based on the characteristic clinical signs because they are obvious.
One of them is a red spot. It can change, that’s why it’s called wandering. For example, in cold weather, the stain becomes paler and when you stay in the sauna or take a warm bath, it is brighter. If the spot at the site of the tick infestation increases to a diameter of five centimeters, it is a sign that a person may have contracted Lyme disease.
Pea-sized redness also occurs when the mite is not infected.
At the site of the bite, the skin becomes red due to the reaction to foreign proteins. As a result, the itching may be bothersome, the affected area may burn, it may swell, but these are not signs of tick-borne diseases. This can also happen when a mosquito or other insect bites.
There are also cases where Lyme disease is diagnosed even when a person does not remember any ticks.
This happens if the mite is sucked in by the back, the harness or the hairy part of the head.
If a person lives alone, no one will tell him that a mite is clinging to his back.
Tick nymphs are also dangerous because they are not large and therefore go unnoticed more often.
– Are ticks free of pathogens in Lithuania?
– Both the European and Lithuanian data are similar. Studies show that about one percent of ticks are infected with the tick-borne encephalitis virus and an average of 20 percent are infected with Lyme disease. ticks.
There are many reasons why the level of tick infestation varies from forest to forest. For example, there may be two forests in the same administrative area, one of which contains approximately 10 percent. ticks that carry Lyme disease and, in the next, several more times.
It is important to know which animals dominate, what is the abundance of ticks, what is the soil, what type of forest.
Tick-borne encephalitis viruses are present in all regions of Lithuania, and Lyme Borrelia disease is also found throughout the country. Consequently, no region is safe in this regard.
– Previously, a map of Lithuania was created, warning where they are most likely to suffer from ticks. Is such a study being carried out now? Maybe it would be useful for mushrooms?
– Some signs may appear in the places where ticks are more frequent. Ticks love moisture, so they may not be present on an old fir tree, where moss doesn’t even grow. But a man will find nothing when he returns to an old fir tree.
The best conditions for ticks are mixed deciduous forests with lush undergrowth. Mites are the ones that most need moisture so that the water does not evaporate from the body, they have to feed on blood during their development.
These survivors are various animals. Every year the number of animals hunted in Lithuania increases. Deer are particularly abundant and have a significant impact on tick-borne diseases. Deer do not support the circulation of the tick-borne encephalitis virus, but they are a food bank for ticks, determining their survival. Rodents are also friends with ticks, a natural reservoir for both the tick-borne encephalitis virus and Lyme disease. These pathogens tune into rodent organisms without causing any harm to them.
When a mite attaches itself to a rodent whose blood contains these pathogens, it is never parted with this gift. Even growing from a larva to a nymph and plunging into an adult form, the mite carries the infection with it.
Just one bite
The tick-borne encephalitis virus causes a disease of the central nervous system – inflammation of the lining of the brain. Vaccines help prevent tick-borne encephalitis.
A person can become infected not only from a sucked tick, but also from drinking unpasteurized cow’s or goat’s milk that has been exposed to the virus.
There is no vaccine against Lyme disease. A single bite from an infected mite is enough for a person to contract Lyme disease. This disease is successfully treated with antibiotics, but if not taken in time, it can lead to heart, joint, and nervous system complications.
Mites should be dressed in light clothing to make it easier to detect ticks that have been in contact with humans.
Blouses should have long sleeves, the cuffs should be snug, long pants are best, and the head should be tied with a scarf or hat.
The face, neck and hands can be sprayed with special means to repel ticks.
