Ticks are already on the hunt and are looking for prey

Lyudmila Karan, head of the scientific group for the development of new methods for diagnosing natural focal diseases, warned about this during a press conference at TASS.

As Lyudmila Karan said, the “tick season” begins when the average daily air temperature rises above 5-10 degrees:

“When the air warms up, the first ticks can already come out and look for prey in order to stick to it.”

According to her, residents of Moscow and the Moscow region need to be especially careful, since the Central Federal District has been at risk for many diseases transmitted by ticks for the past five years:

“Despite the fact that the number of ticks in the Central Federal District did not increase, the infestation of ticks may change. For example, if you look at the trend in infection with borreliosis, one of the diseases transmitted by ticks, now it is such that about 45% of all cases of borreliosis are registered in the Central Federal District. We say this so that people are more attentive to their health and so that doctors know that this nosology can increase in them.”

According to another participant of the press conference – a senior researcher at the Department of Disinfection Problems of the Research Institute of Disinfectology of the FNTs of Hygiene. Erisman Rospotrebnadzor Olga Germant, according to Rospotrebnadzor, at the beginning of April in the southern regions, 2.5 thousand people applied for ticks. Moreover, about 1 thousand of them are children. True, diseases caused by the suction of these dangerous parasites have not yet been registered.

“In general, about 400-500 thousand people apply every year. And these are only those who applied, although in fact, probably much more is sucked in. Some do not give a damn about this, and this is very in vain,” said Olga Germant.

As Lyudmila Karan recalled, a tick is a very ancient creature, according to her, Alexander the Great may have died from a disease transmitted by ticks:

“Despite the fact that the tick is very small and does not live long, only 3 years, it does a lot of harm. After all, we do not have many means to combat the diseases that he suffers. The danger also lies in the fact that nature has provided a painless possibility of its suction, that is, a person never feels that a tick has stuck to him. The female can feed for a week, and only after 3-4 days discomfort may occur in the suction area, which is explained by some allergic reaction.

According to Lyudmila Karan, some of the diseases transmitted by ticks can become chronic (for example, the same borreliosis):

“At the same time, with climate warming, the season of tick activity may increase. Already now we are talking about the time period from March to November, and sometimes even longer, until the end of November. For example, in Primorsky Krai, the tick season can continue until the end of November. But the peak of the number of ticks always falls at a certain time – this is July for the incidence, and June for the suction of ticks. Two weeks is the incubation period, so the peak incidence is noted a little later. Therefore, in July, the most stressful period for doctors for tick-borne infections begins. Then a few of them release everyone (both patients and doctors), and in a number of regions, already in August, the next generation of ticks can again go hunting, in August-September, a smaller second wave begins.

In the south of the country, according to her, there is another serious problem associated with ticks – this is the Crimean hemorrhagic fever:

“This is due to the fact that, perhaps, the only infection that is transmitted to a person not only through the sucking of a tick, but can also be transmitted by contact: from the patient to the one who cares for him, or to the doctor. There is a very high concentration of the virus in human blood, saliva and other bodily fluids, and therefore contact with these bodily fluids can lead to illness of the contact person.”

Crimean hemorrhagic fever is transmitted by a large mite hyalomma (lat. Hyalomma), which mainly parasitizes cattle. Unlike small ticks that live in the Central Federal District (the so-called ixodid), this tick is very active, on its eight striped legs it can very quickly run after its potential prey. Fortunately, there are only about 100 cases of infection with Crimean hemorrhagic fever per year, and all of them are recorded in the southern regions.

According to Lyudmila Karan, if the Crimean hemorrhagic fever were more common, it could top the list of the most dangerous diseases spread by ticks. But since this is not so, the “palm tree” in terms of the danger of consequences belongs to another disease – tick-borne encephalitis. About 2 thousand people fall ill with them in the Russian Federation every year. Moreover, this is not necessarily connected with being somewhere in the taiga … As Lyudmila Karan said, Moscow and the Moscow region have been free from tick-borne encephalitis since 1956 (in 1956 there was an outbreak of encephalitis transmitted through milk in the Pushkin district). However, in 2017-2018 on the western territory of Moscow, a virus was found in ticks, and during their examination, a five percent infection with encephalitis was revealed. Also, the virus and antibodies were found in rodents living there. After that, a decision was made on acaricidal treatments (this is a set of extermination measures) in these territories, after which this natural focus was eliminated. But now the number of ticks is gradually recovering there, although their research shows that so far there is no focus there.

But all this is not a reason for complacency and carelessness, since one should never and nowhere forget that a meeting with this small parasite can turn into big problems.

Sergei Ishkov.

Moskovskaya Pravda collage