Symptoms of encephalitis and borreliosis after a tick bite

In the warm season, almost all over our country, small but quite dangerous insects – forest ticks – are active. The bite itself is not dangerous and is practically unnoticeable to humans. The danger is that the tick can be a carrier of very serious infectious diseases, such as encephalitis and borreliosis. The symptoms after a tick bite are quite specific, but it would be better if everyone knew about them in order to recognize the development of the infection in time.

To protect yourself and your loved ones from the bites of a dangerous insect, you must first know its external differences, as well as the nature of its vital activity.

Biologically, the tick is classified as an arachnid. It is a fairly small insect, approximately 3 mm long. It has a black-brown body. The head is small, significantly smaller than the body, with a proboscis, with which the tick sucks blood from the victim's tissues.

For a long time, it was believed that ticks live on tree branches, and when attacking a victim, they simply jump down from above. This explained the fact that in the vast majority of cases, insects are found in the upper half of the human body: on the head, neck, back. In reality, the small creatures hide in the thick of the grass and bushes. They perfectly sense the approach of an animal or a person, cling to fur or clothing and move in search of an open area of the skin.

Even after reaching an open area of skin, the tick does not bite immediately - it spends some time choosing the softest, most tender and best supplied with blood vessels skin. The insect's favorite places include the groin area, armpits, interscapular region, neck. It is estimated that from the moment the parasite gets on the clothes to the moment of the bite, at least 15 minutes pass.

Insects are more active after rain, when the ambient temperature fluctuates around +20-24°C. In hotter or cooler weather, the risk of getting a tick on you decreases significantly.

Unfortunately, in order to detect a tick on yourself, you need to carefully and periodically conduct a self-examination. It is impossible to feel the bite itself, since together with saliva, the insect secretes a specific liquid into the human skin, which acts as an anesthetic. Therefore, you can only see a tick that has sucked on you during an examination, and the insect, filled with blood, can already reach quite large sizes, up to 1 cm. Some parasites remain in the thickness of human skin without falling off, for up to 10 days.

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Symptoms of encephalitis after a tick bite

Tick-borne encephalitis (also called taiga encephalitis) is a viral infectious disease that affects all parts of the central and peripheral nervous system. Severe encephalitis can be complicated by paralysis and a fatal outcome.

A person becomes infected with a harmful virus when bitten by a virus-carrying insect. The female tick can remain in the skin and suck blood for about 10 days continuously, increasing in size by about 100 times. The male is less resilient, it remains in the blood-sucking stage for only a few hours, after which it falls off.

Humans become infected within the first minutes after the bite. However, the first symptoms do not appear immediately. The latent period of the disease can be one or two weeks, or even up to a month, after which a periodic feeling of weakness in the legs and body muscles appears. The skin often goes numb.

The acute period of the disease begins suddenly, with a fever. The temperature can reach 39-40°C. This condition can last from 2 to 10 days. At the same time, the patient complains of general discomfort, severe headache, dyspeptic disorders, fatigue, insomnia or drowsiness.

During fever, reddening of the upper body and face is observed, and a capillary network appears in the eye area. Sharp muscle pain is noted, and paresis or paralysis of the limbs may develop. Clouding of consciousness, noise in the head, and even a comatose state may be present.

The disease is not always acute; sometimes it is latent with a short period of exacerbation.

Symptoms of the disease are divided into 5 clinical variants, which reflect the degree and stability of neurological manifestations.

• Feverish encephalitis is the most favorable variant, since after several days of fever a quick recovery occurs. The increase in temperature is usually accompanied by weakness, headache, nausea. No other disorders are observed.
• Meningeal course is observed most often: headache (especially during movements), dizziness, nausea and severe vomiting, a feeling of pressure in the eye area, intolerance to bright light. Patients are characterized by lethargy, inhibition. High temperature can last up to 2 weeks.
• Meningoencephalitic course is characterized by more severe symptoms. There are phenomena of delirium, hallucinations, the patient loses orientation, is often excited. Epileptic seizures are possible, which are often accompanied by loss of consciousness up to epileptic status.
• Poliomyelitis progression is observed in approximately every third patient. The feeling of weakness and fatigue turns into convulsive muscle contractions. Numbness and paresis of the limbs, fever, and muscle pain are observed. Symptoms increase over 15-20 days, after which the affected muscles atrophy.
• Polyradiculoneuritic course is accompanied by damage to the peripheral nervous system. A feeling of numbness and ascending paralysis are observed.

If any suspicious symptoms appear, the victim should be immediately sent to the infectious diseases department of the hospital.

Symptoms of Lyme Disease after a Tick Bite

Tick-borne borreliosis is caused by spirochete bacteria that are transmitted by ticks. The disease affects the skin, nervous system, musculoskeletal system and heart.

A person can become infected with borreliosis after being bitten by an insect that carries the infection. Spirochetes penetrate the wound and begin to multiply, gradually spreading to other tissues and organs with the bloodstream. It is typical that the pathogen can live in the human body for several years, developing as a chronic and recurrent pathology.

However, most often borreliosis develops acutely. The latent period usually lasts about 14 days, less often - from 2 days to 1 month.

In the vast majority of cases, the onset of the disease is characterized by the appearance of a spot on the skin in the bite area. The red or pink spot gradually increases in diameter, which can be from 10 to 100 mm or even more. The spot can be round or oblong, sometimes irregular in shape. The outer borders have a bright red hue, with a small outlined swelling. As the disease progresses, the center (the bite site) becomes pale and even somewhat bluish. Thus, the spot becomes annular. The wound becomes covered with a crust, after which a small scar forms in its place. If the pathology is not treated, then after 15-20 days the spot disappears, and other, more serious symptoms appear.

The next stage of the disease development is the appearance of signs of damage to the central nervous system, cardiovascular system, muscular-articular apparatus. However, it is the reddened spot that is considered a specific sign of infection. This is a direct signal for urgent medical attention.

Symptoms after a tick bite in a child

After a tick bite, a child may develop both general inflammatory and neurological symptoms. For this reason, the disease can often be confused with another infectious pathology or severe poisoning.

If the following symptoms appear within a month after a tick attack, you should immediately show your child to a specialist:

• a sharp and strong increase in temperature, chills, fever that does not go away for a week;
• pronounced weakness, exhaustion;
• frequent attacks of nausea and vomiting;
• severe pain in the head, muscles, knees, elbows, neck;
• redness of the face, mucous membrane of the mouth;
• disturbances in cardiac activity, fluctuations in blood pressure;
• urinary disorder;
• excessive excitement, or, conversely, stupor, lethargy;
• increased sensitivity of the skin, or, conversely, numbness;
• increased muscle tone, increased reflexes, deterioration of hearing and vision;
• development of paresis and paralysis.

It is also necessary to pay attention to the bite site - often the signs of the disease are not much different from those found in adult patients. Redness and swelling of the wound directly indicate infection.

As you can see from the above information, the symptoms after a tick bite are quite pronounced, and the consequences that the virus can provoke are very dangerous. Therefore, follow all safety and prevention measures. And if any suspicious signs appear, immediately contact an infectious disease specialist.