"You can twist the tick in any direction"

Not all ticks are equally harmful. Of the almost 50 thousand species of these microscopic arachnids, only a few lead a parasitic lifestyle and are carriers of diseases dangerous to humans. However, when people say “tick” in Russia, they usually mean blood-sucking representatives of the genus Ixodes - truly unpleasant creatures.

“Among the blood-feeding ticks in Russia, there is not a single one specially “tailored” for humans. The usual source of food for them is other vertebrates, not only mammals, but also birds, and even lizards. So if a tick grabs you, it will in some way confused you with a roe deer, deer or rat,” says Alexander Platonov, head of the Laboratory of Epidemiology of Natural Focal Infections of the Central Research Institute of Epidemiology.

Alexander Platonov:

"During its life cycle, a tick goes through several stages. A larva hatches from an egg, it turns into a nymph, then there is an adult stage, the largest one - and then adult females lay eggs again. Almost always, in order to move to the next phase, the tick needs to drink blood, therefore, even larvae can attach themselves and transmit infections. But they are too small for us: usually the larvae of ticks climb no higher than three centimeters and wait for some mouse to run past, but nymphs and adults can climb onto tall grass and onto. bush, to a height of 30-60 cm, where they sit in the “hunter pose” - head down.

When an animal runs past, the tick falls on it and gets caught. Contrary to popular belief, ticks rarely climb trees, and if you find a tick in your head, it most likely means that it climbed there from below, and did not fall from the birch tree.

— Are there any places or types of forest that are most dangerous for us and most loved by ticks?

We must understand that when we say “mite” this is a big generalization; their group includes not only many species, but also entire genera and families. They are very different, live in very different conditions, have different habits and carry different infections. Therefore, a tick somewhere in the Novosibirsk region, a tick in Astrakhan or Arkhangelsk - these can be completely different ticks. Some can settle in the steppe, while others, as we are used to, in the forest. Apparently, they do not have any particularly preferred types of forest - they adapt to what they have, they can be in both coniferous and deciduous forests.

However, if we talk about our middle zone, then here they rather prefer small forests, in which areas of forest alternate with fields and meadows, existing on the border between forest and open space. But they usually need trees to provide shade and moisture, otherwise the tick will dry out quickly. So if you move at least fifty meters away from the forest, you can feel relatively safe.

On the other hand, today both ticks and their infections are getting closer and closer to cities, and there is a very real chance of catching them in an ordinary city park, especially not in Moscow, but in Yekaterinburg, Novosibirsk and other endemic areas.

— Let’s say a tick fell on clothing. What does he do next?

Once hooked, he begins to look for a place where he can attach himself and begin to feed quietly. On a person, he is more likely to sit low and crawl up, looking for a crack in the clothes to get to the body.

— Do they have any preferred places? Where is the skin softest - armpits, under the knees, in the groin, under the hair on the head?

In principle, the tick doesn’t care, it’s just looking for an accessible and quiet place. It can dig into your stomach, your back, or anywhere else. Having found a suitable place, the tick bites in, injecting an anesthetic, which makes it almost impossible to feel the suction.

The tick itself is not so scary: its task is to drink a little blood and fall off. The danger comes from infections that enter our body with tick saliva. Among the dozens of diseases that are associated with ticks, tick-borne viral encephalitis and borreliosis, also known as Lyme disease, are the most common. These are the most important, but not the only infections that ticks spread.

There are many known infections transmitted by ticks, and new ones are slowly being discovered. Ticks are far from the main threat to public health, so their study has not been and is not receiving such great attention. Even such a serious disease as tick-borne encephalitis was discovered only in the 1930s, and pathogenic Borrelia were found only in the 1980s. Well, a group of rarer tick-borne infections is being studied quite slowly - fortunately, the frequency of the diseases they cause is very low.

— I read somewhere that most of the Russian population suffers from Lyme disease in a latent form...

There must be some confusion. The fact is that when the prevalence of infection among the population is studied, doctors check the presence of antibodies to this infection in the blood. If they are present, it means that the person has encountered the infection at some point. And judging by the presence of antibodies, then in some regions where there are especially many ticks - Sverdlovsk, Chelyabinsk, the southern part of the Krasnoyarsk region, the Altai Republic and so on - in them, probably, 80% of the population will have antibodies. Antibodies - but not the bacteria themselves...

And this does not even mean that all these people got sick: many of the immune system could, having developed antibodies, successfully defeat the infection; this is not at all uncommon. As a result, they may have antibodies to the pathogens that cause Lyme disease—but not Lyme disease itself.

— Which is correct: Lyme disease or borreliosis?

Lyme is a small town north of New York, near Yale, about thirty minutes from the famous university. The disease was especially common in this place, and it was discovered there, hence the name. By the way, today there is a museum dedicated to ticks in Lyme, and in general a very prosperous business is built on ticks.

But, accordingly, it is more correct to call Lyme disease exactly the type of borreliosis that exists in the vicinity of this town, on the East Coast of North America. A more general and accurate name for the disease is ixodid tick-borne borreliosis. Please note, in the plural: this is a whole set of related diseases that are caused by Borrelia of different species.

- By what signs can they be recognized?

Borreliosis can be localized; its main external manifestation is the so-called migratory erythrema, which can appear after a few hours or days. This is a redness ranging in size from 5 to 20 cm, which appears at the site of the bite, and then, as the bacteria spreads throughout the body, it grows, can grow into a ring, and appear in other places on the skin. More generally, borreliosis can manifest itself as a febrile syndrome - a not too long increase in temperature, weakness, pain in muscles and joints, much like the flu.

The best way to protect yourself from borreliosis is to remove the tick immediately after the bite. This issue was studied especially well by the Americans, who showed that borrelia, having entered a tick with the blood of a rodent, settle in its stomach wall. At the moment when the tick has just attached itself to a person, they remain in the stomach and begin to move to the salivary glands only when a signal is received in the stomach - a portion of fresh blood. This move may take approximately 12 hours. After this, they still have to change a little, adapting to living conditions in the human body, and only then can real infection begin. So the sooner you remove the tick, the better.

- If we didn’t have time to do this, how great are the chances of a cure?

Borreliosis can be treated quite successfully; a regular course of antibiotics is usually sufficient. There are no problems with the resistance of these bacteria, with their resistance to antibiotics. This is actually not surprising, because for Borrelia, humans are a dead-end host. From a sick mouse, the disease will be transmitted to a new tick and a new mouse, and a sick person, while he is lying down and being treated, is unlikely to be bitten by a new tick. So the disease can be successfully treated with common and inexpensive antibiotics.

— But such problems should exist with encephalitis?

Absolutely right. Encephalitis is a viral disease and cannot be treated with antibiotics. Viruses, on the other hand, are practically dead objects, and killing them, paradoxically, turns out to be not easy. Acute viral diseases are generally quite difficult to treat, even the most modern medications do not cure them - the body itself is cured, and they only help it or alleviate some symptoms and manifestations.

Encephalitis can occur quite easily, and sometimes unnoticed, when the body copes with the infection on its own. If he fails, encephalitis can progress to a febrile stage, which is manifested by high temperature. The next, more dangerous form of encephalitis is meningeal, associated with inflammation of the membranes of the brain. Finally, sometimes the disease develops to its own encephalitic form, the most severe, in which individual nerves and entire groups of nerve cells are affected. Well, death occurs only in very rare cases, about 1.5% of cases.

However, even in those who have coped with the disease in the most advanced stages, the nervous system can gradually restore lost functions. An excellent example of this is the life of the Soviet virologist Mikhail Petrovich Chumakov, after whom the Institute of Poliomyelitis and Viral Encephalitis is today named. Back in the 1930s, while working, he fell ill with tick-borne encephalitis, but after his illness he lived a long and happy life.

— It turns out that we should be more afraid of encephalitis?

Yes, but in most of Russia, encephalitis is much less common than borreliosis. No more than 1% of ticks are carriers of the virus, so if one has attached itself to you, there is no reason to panic. Moreover, only 1% of those bitten by such ticks develop any clinical manifestations.

Every year in Russia a little more than half a million people visit medical institutions due to tick bites. This is probably every tenth person actually bitten: we can safely assume that several million people are bitten by ticks every year. Well, about 3 thousand clinical cases of encephalitis are registered - this is about 0.1% of those bitten.

Borreliosis is registered several times more; it is carried by 20-30% of ticks. But this disease is also much milder; many people can easily tolerate it without seeking medical help. I think that the real incidence of borreliosis is a couple of tens of thousands per year.

By the way, the Moscow region is not considered dangerous at all in terms of tick-borne encephalitis. Encephalitis ticks are just approaching it, from the north, from the Dmitrov region. But you can become infected with borreliosis even in Izmailovsky Park.

— What can you advise to those walking in Izmailovsky Park who do not want to pick up a tick?

First, wear light-colored clothing, which makes ticks more visible. Secondly, try to ensure that there are no cracks in it that a tick could easily get into; cover your hair. Clothes may well be light and suitable for hot weather. Today, clothing impregnated with anti-tick compounds is also sold. Their effect is not one hundred percent, but quite real. You can also use repellents that are applied to the skin.

Finally, after leaving the forest, it is recommended to inspect each other or look around yourself, and if you are in the forest long enough, you need to do this regularly.

— If all measures do not help, is it true that the tick should not be pulled out, but twisted, and strictly counterclockwise?

You can twist the tick in any direction, the main thing is not to try to pull it out like a cork from a bottle, but to twist it slowly and carefully. As far as I know, oil does not help, although it will not make it worse. The same applies to alcohol, vodka, vinegar and other folk remedies: a tick is a perfectly protected creature; most likely, it simply will not notice anything. It is already buried under the skin and cannot suffocate.

The extracted tick can be stored in a glass jar with damp cotton wool and a blade of grass to be sent for analysis - to some diagnostic laboratory or directly to our institute. If he dies, it’s also not a problem, carry it. We will definitely check them for the most common infections."