Be careful of ticks biting saliva during the Dragon Boat Festival holiday | Paralysis | Ticks
Summer is the active season for various types of mosquitoes. Ticks are one of them, which often appear in lush areas of grass and forests, silently burrowing into the human body to suck blood, and can be fatal in severe cases. During an interview with People's Daily Online reporters, Dr. Zeng Sanwu, the chief physician of the dermatology department at Tianjin First Central Hospital, reminded that during the Dragon Boat Festival holiday in the countryside, be careful of tick bites.
Q: What is a tick?
Zeng Sanwu: Ticks, commonly known as dog turtles, cattle lice, and grass crawling insects, often hide in forests, grasslands, and cattle and sheep fur in shallow mountains and hills. Every stage of its growth must rely on blood sucking for a living. When not sucking blood, its belly and back are flat, only the size of sesame seeds. After sucking blood, it becomes the size of a soybean, and even up to the size of a fingernail.
Q: How harmful is being bitten by ticks?
Zeng Sanwu: The common harm is to induce allergic reactions, resulting in skin diseases related to tick bites, such as fever, allergic dermatitis, and rash.
Ticks are carriers of various pathogens, such as viruses, rickettsia, spirochetes, etc. They can transmit various infectious diseases, such as forest encephalitis, tick borne hemorrhagic fever, Lyme disease, tick borne spotted fever, fever with thrombocytopenia syndrome.
Q: What parts do ticks like to bite?
Zeng Sanwu: Ticks like to find hidden parts of people or animals, mainly in areas with thin skin that are not easily disturbed. For example, the neck, behind the ears, navel, toe gaps, legs, etc. of a person are easily bitten by ticks.
Q: What are the symptoms of being bitten by ticks?
Zeng Sanwu: After being bitten by ticks, there may be edematous papules, bruises, or hard nodular lesions on the skin, causing itching or pain. In severe cases, fever may occur, and even a rash may spread all over the body. In addition to damaging the skin, when ticks bite the skin, injecting toxins from saliva into the human body can easily cause tick paralysis, manifested as acute ascending paralysis. In severe cases, patients may die due to respiratory center involvement. In addition, symptoms such as chills, headaches, abdominal pain, nausea, vomiting, and tick bite fever can also occur, as well as symptoms of multiple organ dysfunction such as thrombocytopenia, abnormal liver enzymes, abnormal myocardial enzymes, and abnormal coagulation function, which are life-threatening.
Q: How to deal with being bitten by ticks?
Zeng Sanwu: First, carefully check if there are any insect bodies attached to the skin. If there are no insect bodies, only mild skin redness, swelling, and itching can be treated with topical anti-inflammatory ointment; If there is a tick body, do not pat it. Patching may cause the tick's beak to break and cause infection. You can use petroleum jelly, paraffin oil, etc. to apply to the tick's head, isolate the air around the tick, and then gently pull it out with tweezers. If unable to handle it on your own, please go to the hospital immediately.
Q: How to prevent tick bites?
Zeng Sanwu: When going out, try to avoid areas with abundant vegetation, grass, and trees, or minimize your stay time as much as possible. Pay attention to wearing long clothes and pants, tie the cuffs, pants legs, and waist tightly, and do not wear sandals. After going out and returning home, take a shower in a timely manner and carefully check for any abnormal "black spots" on your body or clothes.
