Tick-borne encephalitis is an acute infectious (viral) disease of a natural-focal character, in which the gray matter of the brain is affected, as well as the membranes of the brain and spinal cord. This is a very serious illness that can lead to disability and death.
Ways of infection with tick-borne encephalitis
The sources of the virus of tick-borne encephalitis are wild animals and birds (mostly small rodents), and carriers - ixodid mites. Feeding on the blood of an animal whose virus is present in the blood, the mite becomes the keeper of the virus, saving it for life and passing it on to its offspring.
A person can become infected with tick-borne encephalitis in two ways:
- The first (main) is transmissible: the virus concentrates more in the salivary glands of the tick, so when it hits the human skin during a bloodshot with saliva, the infected tick transmits it to the blood.
- The second (rare) is alimentary: infection through the digestive and gastrointestinal tracts with the use of unboiled milk of goats or cows infected with tick-borne encephalitis.
Also, contamination can occur if sprays of saliva or a cavitary liquid of infected mites get on the skin with micro cuts or cracks or on the mucous membranes of the mouth and nose. This can happen when trying to crush a tick.
Great importance in the transmission of the virus has a blood-sucking time, so it is important to remove the sucking mite as quickly as possible.
It should be noted that in different people the susceptibility to tick-borne encephalitis is different. With prolonged residence in a natural hearth, a person can undergo multiple sucking of ticks with the ingestion of small doses of the virus. After this, antibodies are produced in the blood, the accumulation of which promotes the development of immunity to the virus. If such people get infected, then the disease will proceed in mild form.
Symptoms of tick-borne encephalitis infection in adults
Signs of tick-borne encephalitis do not appear immediately after the tick bite, although infection can occur in the first minutes of bloodsucking. The average duration of the incubation period for tick-borne encephalitis (from infection to the manifestation of symptoms) is: for the transmission pathway - 7-14 days, with alimentary - 2-7 days.
As a rule, the disease begins acutely, accompanied by such symptoms:
- increase in body temperature (up to 40 ° C);
- a sharp headache;
- nausea, vomiting;
- general malaise, weakness;
- lack of appetite;
- muscle pain ;
- hyperemia of the skin of the face, neck, chest.
The acute phase lasts about 4 days, after which a remission occurs, lasting about 8 days. Further in 20 - 30% of patients the next phase of the disease occurs, at which the central nervous system is affected. For this phase, the following symptoms are typical:
- fever;
- very severe headache ;
- tension of neck muscles;
- obscuration of consciousness;
- stunned;
- numbness, paresis and paralysis of muscles.
Depending on the severity of symptoms, five clinical forms of the disease are distinguished:
- febrile;
- meningeal;
- poliomyelitis;
- meningoencephalic;
- polyradiculoneurotic.
The most favorable outcome is the febrile form (rapid recovery), the heaviest
Treatment of tick-borne encephalitis
When symptoms of tick-borne encephalitis are detected, intensive treatment is required, the patient is urgently hospitalized in the infectious department. Serum, antibiotics, immunoglobulin, anticholinesterase drugs, B vitamins, biostimulators, etc. are used for treatment. The recovery period can last a long time, neuroprotectors, exercise therapy, and massage are used for rehabilitation.