Ticks attack

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If you have found your region and it is not green - this article may not be useless for you ...



We all rejoice in the advent of the serene spring days. The nature comes alive, the trees, the first nice looking green appears. Everything around comes to life, including the formidable inhabitant of forests and places of mass festivities of citizens - the tick. The first recorded tick bite in 2016 occurred in Kemerovo on March 23, in Tomsk on the 29th, and St. Petersburg even earlier - on March 8 . What is a tick, how is it dangerous and how to protect yourself from the troubles associated with it - I propose to discuss together.

Know the enemy's face

More precisely to know the whole thing. Ticks (depending on the stage of their development), as a rule, are from 2 to 5-7 mm in size, with a characteristic color and a dark area on the body. Quite agile and regardless of size are equally dangerous. Favorite habitat of the tick is old dry grass, low shrubs, the outskirts of forests. Habitats of ticks should be sufficiently dry, because in the floodplain of rivers, ticks can be found much less frequently. Ticks live practically throughout the whole territory of Russia, but their greater distribution is observed practically throughout the whole territory of Siberia, in Buryatia, Udmurtia and Gorny Altai. Unfortunately, more and more it is possible to pick up a tick already in those regions where this problem was not so urgent. Some researchers arguethat the active distribution of ticks (of which there are thousands of species in nature) is an indicator of climate change, which has been talked about so much lately. But today we will talk only about ticks that are carriers of dangerous infections. By the way, the number of these infections is in the tens, but the most threatening and known are tick-borne encephalitis and Lyme disease.

Does female bite or male?
Both. In this case, the female sticks in for a long time. Maybe even for a week. But the males are nimble. He bit, drank blood for an hour or two, and went about his business. But both sexes are dangerous. According to statistics, 4-5 percent of the population of ticks are carriers of Lyme disease and tick-borne encephalitis. Some specialistsThey say that males are more dangerous than females, as their bite passes faster and you can simply not notice it. Indeed, in the first stage of a bite, the tick secretes enzymes that neutralize the pain receptors of the victim, which allows him to firmly fix on the body. When the tick bit into the skin - he does not care. Removing it is not so easy. Especially if you are a hare, squirrel or bear and you do not have special tools for this at hand. How to distinguish male from female? It's simple. The males are smaller. Here is a photo of a lover (not verified) couple of ticks. It can be seen on a date)


What to do to not bitten the tick?
The most reliable way is to sit at home. But if you are a lover of walks through the woods, eat a kebab under brandy, then you just need to be careful and reasonably careful. It is necessary to do a regular inspection of the body. Once an hour. Tick ​​doesn’t bite instantly. He, unlike us all, never in a hurry. If he clings to you, he will look for a “tasty” place, slowly rising higher and higher. Favorite places of the tick are groin, belt, neck, armpit, tail bone. Although, of course, the bite may be in other places. Therefore, look around regularly. Apply pretixes (protective mite from ticks), tidy your clothes carefully, do not go into windbreaks and in clusters of dry grass. The living space of ticks is a couple of tens of centimeters from the ground. They are not bears - they do not climb trees. In general, a man for a tick is not a particularly interesting object - it smells like deodorants, perfume, all synthetic, no wool. What kind of beast? Much more likely to suffer is your pet dog and children. That's who you need to watch especially closely.


Bitten all the same, infection!
No matter how hard we try to avoid a bite, sometimes the tick can stick. Do not panic, go into the car or from a backpack we get a special set for this case. What kind of set? In case of tick bite. If you are a lover of forest walks or an avid gardener - spend half an hour and collect such a set yourself. We go to the veterinary clinic, we buy several plastic devices - rip-offs for tick removal. You tell me - they are for dogs! And why are we worse than dogs? Do not be shy!

In the pharmacy, we will buy disposable wet wipes for injections, a pencil tucked in with iodine or green paint. It is a pencil, so as not to get smeared from head to foot from iodine in bottles. A pair of empty plastic sterile tubes with a cap to keep the tick for analysis in the laboratory. Also buy pretiks. Here they should take advantage before going to the forest. The whole set is cheap and looks like this. They say that there are similar ready-made kits, but why overpay?



Using the set is quite simple. We treat the bite site with a napkin, pick up a tick with a jerk, but do not pull it, but twist the tick like a screw. He easily comes out and stays at the jerk. Drop the tick into the tube, and wipe the bite with a fresh cloth and scorch iodine. Ask friends to help you if the bite is not out of hand. You have noticed that you pull out in a set of two types. Small use for small ticks. These are usually males. There is an opinion that the tick can not be touched and should be removed only in the hospital. It is not right. The tick should be removed as soon as possible to stop the invasion of a potentially dangerous parasite.

Everything. Your vacation is over. Kebab eats, brandy is no longer drink. And in general, more peace, liquid, hot sweet tea and march to the point of seroprophylaxis. Further actions are already taken by doctors.

Rapid test of a tick
All this is good if you are a resident of a large city and the point of seroprophylaxis works closely in the tick season. And if it is remote, or you work on the watch somewhere, where, as they say in the song, only a helicopter can fly. In this case, a rapid test for tick-borne encephalitis and Lyme disease would be helpful. Putting such a test in our kit would be great. I call biotech friends with this question. They answer that there are expensive import tests (I don’t give links to them, if you really need them in person). Russian commercial test systems are not. However attempts create a similar test system occasionally arise.


Finnish company. Well done guys, what could be there. Can I buy this test in Russia? The answer is no. Sanction goods. And the price of 40 euros is also not careful ...

What to do? Yes, you can create a great domestic test. In this age of advanced biotechnology, this is possible. Of course, to make a quality test, you need to carry out responsible work on a clear development plan.



The biggest problem is not with technology, but with administrative matters. Registration of the test system, its legalization, numerous checks and the satisfaction of any bureaucratic requirements - this is the most difficult. It may take years. In Finland, a test system was made and brought to the market in a few months. And she only encephalitis. Our developers can make a test system while determining Lyme disease. This is very important, because in the case of encephalitis, you can protect yourself with vaccination, and there is no vaccine for Lyme disease.

What is such a test system? Similar to the development of the Finns, but for two infections. The analysis is not difficult. The test does not analyze a person, but a tick. We place the tick in a bottle with a special solution and after a few minutes drip onto the test strip. No more difficult than a pregnancy test)


Due to the use of "smart" chemistry, it is possible to achieve high specificity and sensitivity of the analysis, while maintaining the tick material for subsequent more precise diagnosis, for example, by the PCR method . And in general, in our age of high technologies, to have such simple things as rapid tests for everything, in my opinion, would be useful. With all due respect to doctors, who, by the nature of their work (and quite rightly), are against any independent actions with the body, but the future of humanity is still connected with the development of advanced diagnostic technologies, both genetic and simple, about which I write in this post . I think so. And you?