Tick ​​bite symptoms

People often encounter various kinds of insects in their lives. Some are as beautiful as butterflies, some are as ugly as caterpillars; some are harmless, while others are highly poisonous. Usually when people see an insect for the first time, their usual reaction is to avoid it. No matter what kind of insect it is, it will cause a certain amount of panic in people. The more common insects people see include butterflies, caterpillars, cicadas, etc. Ticks are also a type of insect, but they are parasites and are quite harmful.

When it comes to ticks, people generally cannot see them because they are parasites and they like to parasitize on animals. Although we cannot see it with our naked eyes, it often attacks the body and causes harm to it. So, what are the symptoms after being bitten by a tick?

Ticks belong to the order Parasiticus and the superfamily Ixodidae. Adults have a strongly chitinous shield on the back of their bodies, commonly known as hard ticks, belonging to the Ixodidae family; those without a shield are commonly known as soft ticks, belonging to the Ixodidae family. There are about 800 species discovered in the world, including more than 700 species of hard ticks, about 150 species of soft ticks, and 1 species of Nasciuridae. There are about 100 species of hard ticks and 10 species of soft ticks recorded in my country. Ticks are temporary parasites on the surface of many species of vertebrates and are the vectors and reservoir hosts of some zoonotic diseases. This parasite is extremely fond of animals with dense fur, especially cattle. It can often be found under the neck and inside the legs of cattle. It often gathers in groups and is very difficult to remove. It is very common in rural areas of Sichuan, Yunnan, Guizhou and other places.

Adult ticks have a strongly chitinous shield on the back of their body, commonly known as hard ticks (pí), belonging to the Ixodidae family; those without a shield are commonly known as soft ticks, belonging to the Aspleniidae family. There are about 800 species discovered in the world, including more than 700 species of hard ticks, about 150 species of soft ticks, and 1 species of Nasophilidae (only found in Europe). There are about 100 species of hard ticks and 10 species of soft ticks recorded in China. Ticks are temporary parasites on the surface of many species of vertebrates and are the vectors and reservoir hosts of some zoonotic diseases.

Ticks usually do not feel pain when biting and sucking blood, but because the chelicerae and hypothalamus pierce the host's skin at the same time, it can cause local congestion, edema, acute inflammatory response, and may also cause secondary infection. The neurotoxins secreted by some hard ticks in their saliva during the blood-sucking process can cause conduction disorders in the host's motor fibers, leading to ascending muscle paralysis, which can lead to respiratory failure and death, a phenomenon called tick paralysis. It is more common in children. If the tick is discovered in time and removed, the symptoms can be eliminated. Human cases of this disease have been reported in Northeast China and Shanxi.

Ticks are as big as a small fingernail. Once they fall onto a person's body, they burrow into the skin and end up dead once they reach the brain. After a tick bites a person, it emits a numbing sensation, buries its head in the skin and sucks blood, and at the same time secretes a substance that can be harmful to the human body. If it penetrates into the human body, it must be removed immediately. If it is not removed in time: in mild cases, the patient will suffer from unbearable itching in rainy weather a few years later. In severe cases, the patient may suffer from persistent high fever, deep coma, convulsions, and forest encephalitis.

After ticks bite people, they will infect human peripheral blood neutrophils, causing fever with leukopenia, thrombocytopenia and multiple organ dysfunction as the main clinical manifestations. After a tick bites a person, the onset of illness is usually acute and severe, with the main symptoms being fever, accompanied by general discomfort, headache, fatigue, muscle aches, as well as nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, anorexia, and mental depression.

To sum up, everyone should have a certain degree of understanding of ticks, including their habits and the symptoms that may occur after being bitten. This will help everyone to prevent ticks more in their lives. If you are accidentally bitten by a tick in your daily life, you should go to the hospital for examination and treatment immediately. Do not wait until relevant symptoms appear in the body before going for treatment, because it may be too late by then.