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Did you know how ticks can lurk in your backyard and spread deadly pathogens?
In our backyards, ticks exist silently, lurking in trees and tall grass, transmitting deadly pathogens to people and animals, perhaps without your knowledge. How these little creatures evolved to become such efficient spreaders of pathogens, and their potential impact on our society, has become a focus of public health concern.
Tick-borne diseases encompass a wide range of pathogens, from bacteria to viruses, that not only affect humans but also threaten our agriculture and livestock.
The life history of ticks is quite complex, and many pathogens need to pass through vertebrate hosts to complete their life cycles. Human infection with tick diseases often involves wild animals as hosts, and they play an important role in transmitting the pathogen. As global climate change impacts ecological environments, tick populations as we know them are increasing and spreading into new areas.
According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), as of 2020, 18 tick-borne pathogens have been confirmed in the United States, and at least 27 are known globally.
Ticks like to live in woods, shrubs, or areas with tall grass and fallen leaves. These are the best environments for them to find hosts. Ticks are most active during the warmer months, and humans are vulnerable to tick bites if they enter these areas during this period. Common symptoms include muscle pain, fever, fatigue and rash, and in some cases, tick bites can cause motion sickness, leading to acute, ascending paralysis, which can be fatal if left untreated.
People can reduce the risk of tick bites by wearing light-colored clothing, using insect repellent, and checking themselves frequently.
In addition, because ticks often carry multiple pathogens, patients may be infected with multiple pathogens at the same time, making diagnosis and treatment complicated. When diagnosing tick-borne diseases, symptoms and laboratory tests must be combined to make a correct judgment. The diagnosis of Lyme disease, in particular, relies on medical history and clinical manifestations, and its laboratory testing usually adopts a two-tier testing protocol to confirm the presence of the pathogen.
When a tick is discovered, it should be removed as soon as possible. The best way is to use tweezers to gently pull out the tick from near its mouth and avoid rotating it. Many experts do not recommend using chemical methods to cause ticks to fall off on their own, as this can lead to unnecessary risks. Anyone bitten by a tick, whether human or animal, should seek medical help immediately, especially if more serious symptoms such as rash or paralysis occur.
Treatment 5 includes antibiotics that target specific pathogens, such as doxycycline and amoxicillin if you are infected with Lyme disease.
Detect potential risks
For a person or pet to become infected with a tick-borne disease, they must be bitten by a tick and the tick must continue to feed for a period of time. Different ticks and pathogens require different feeding times. Factors that also influence tick infection rates include the number and diversity of animals in the surrounding environment. Typically, the way to detect whether a tick is carrying an infectious agent is to use a highly specific qPCR test.
Overall, with the increase in the discovery of ticks and the pathogens they carry, people's understanding and prevention awareness of such diseases have also increased accordingly. But in the face of changing ecological environment and climate conditions, how to protect yourself and your family from these small creatures is still a topic worth pondering?
