Your doctor’s advice will be helpful to everyone – these measures will help you better protect yourself against tick attacks

During the spring, summer, and fall periods, when ticks are at their highest, people who spend a lot of time in nature should be more vigilant. Ticks and the diseases they cause are extremely dangerous. Serious health problems can last a lifetime. Up to 9 percent. patients with tick-borne encephalitis are disabled.

Aušra Bartulienė, an epidemiologist at the Center for Communicable Diseases and AIDS (ULAC), says it is very important to mark the day of tick infestation on the calendar and monitor it for about 30 days. However, about 40 percent. In cases, humans do not notice infested mites, as very small (about 1mm) tick nymphs attack people. Therefore, if the temperature increases for an unknown reason, the head, muscles, joints, or red spot on the skin appear, even if the mite has not been absorbed, you should contact your family doctor immediately. A. Bartulienė with Delphi Readers share tips on how to avoid tick infestation, as well as dispel myths about ticks and the diseases they carry.

Measures to prevent tick infestation.

* When going to the forest, you should wear long pants, put on a long-sleeved shirt, wear rubber boots. Wear light clothing, as it is easier to spot a tick on them;

* Spray exposed areas with repellent and spray pants and socks with insecticide (according to manufacturer’s recommendations);

* Avoid tall grass, humid, thick and shady places;

* When you return from the field, inspect the clothing, shake it out, and leave it in a dry, sunny place so that the ticks die;

* Inspect the body and remove the mite as soon as possible after detection. Ticks, found on the body, look for smooth, delicate skin where there are many blood vessels to make sucking and feeding easier. It can be absorbed anywhere in the body, but more often: in the buttocks, groin, inner surface of the elbow, armpits and behind the ears.

Field work to reduce the abundance of ticks

* Mow the lawn from early spring, preventing it from growing more than 10 cm. Ticks do not like sunny places because they are very sensitive to drying;

* Low-value shrubs should be felled, forest debris, dredgers, removed grass cut or burned;

* Roads and paths leading to bodies of water, sports fields, bonfires must be expanded;

* Kills rodents.

Myths and truth

Ticks and the diseases they transmit are intertwined with various rumors, myths, and stories. Epidemiologist A. Bartulienė refutes some of the most common floating myths about ticks.

* Ticks come to life when nature breaks down, so the diseases they transmit can only be contracted in the summer.

In fact, ticks come to life after hibernation when the ambient temperature rises to 5 – 7º C. In Lithuania, the active period of ticks lasts from March to early December. Therefore, tick-borne encephalitis or Lyme disease can occur not only in the summer.

* Ticks die during the winter.

Mites overwinter in the ground or in the topsoil of fallen leaves and grass and therefore protect themselves from the cold.

* Ticks can jump or fly.

Ticks cannot do this. Ticks generally attach to the feet and calves and then crawl where they find the best place to suck. Therefore, it is recommended to wear long, light pants tucked into socks and spray them with a tick repellent.

* Tick-borne diseases can only be transmitted in forests or grasslands.
In our country, most people become infected in their living environment: on the farm, in the collective garden, in the courtyard of their own house, in the city park. Ticks generally take advantage of their grass in the grass. When attached to a blade of grass, they quickly feel the warmth of a person or animal and therefore enter the body.

* If a red spot does not appear at the site of the tick bite, it appears that you are not infected with Lyme disease.
Unfortunately not. The Lyme disease rash occurs in only about 80 percent of cases. of all patients For this reason, some patients, especially those who have not seen an infested mite, do not notice the onset of Lyme disease or are mistaken for the flu or cold.

* Tick-borne diseases can only be transmitted in certain areas of Lithuania.
Morbidity statistics show that tick-borne encephalitis and Lyme disease can be transmitted throughout Lithuania.

* Quick removal of the mite will prevent infection.
Because tick-borne encephalitis viruses are present in the salivary glands of ticks, they are transmitted to humans as soon as the tick “settles”.

* Tick-borne encephalitis is completely curable.
About a third of people with tick-borne encephalitis have lifelong viral complications: paralysis, impaired coordination, headache, fatigue, sleep, attention disorders, emotional irritability, memory impairment, depression. Up to 9 percent. the sick are disabled.