Is there a vaccine for borreliosis? Lyme disease: A vaccine will be available in five years. How long after a tick bite should I be tested for borreliosis

To know how to prevent the development of the disease, it is necessary to study the mechanism of its development, the ways of infection. The carriers of the infection are animals, mostly rodents -,. feeds on the blood of a sick animal, does not become infected itself, but becomes a distributor.

It provokes borreliosis or a certain type of bacteria - Borrelia. They are concentrated in the saliva of the arachnid, are in an inactive state. When a person bites, bacteria enter through saliva under the skin. Initially, they develop there, forming swelling, inflammation, redness. After some time, they enter the systemic circulation, are carried throughout the body.

On a note!

The incubation period of tick-borne borreliosis lasts an average of 14 days. Initially, a large spot appears on the skin, up to 60 cm in diameter. And after a couple of days, vivid symptoms of Lyme disease appear. During this period, the death of borrelia begins, in the process they release toxic substances that cause a number of negative consequences.

The danger of tick-borne borreliosis

The first symptoms of Lyme disease are the result of toxicosis. Body temperature instantly rises, muscle aches bother, nausea, vomiting, weakness, headache appear. The clinical picture resembles the flu, but there are specific symptoms - photophobia, lacrimation, sour eyes, restriction in neck movements, tense facial muscles. The condition returns to normal even without special treatment within a week, the further development of borreliosis after a tick bite follows one of two scenarios:

• antibodies are produced in the human body, immunity stops the disease;
• bacteria continue to multiply, affect the brain, central nervous system, muscles, internal organs - the liver, spleen, heart, kidneys.

In the absence of qualified therapy, borreliosis becomes severe, difficult to treat. Complications - loss of vision, deafness, osteoporosis, arthrosis, disability, paralysis, dementia, death.

On a note!

The main method of treatment is. The drugs are selected in each case individually, with timely therapy they stop the development of the disease, eliminate the symptoms. Immunity is produced unstable, a person can get sick again the next year. There is no vaccine against borreliosis, so you need to follow non-specific methods of prevention.

Preventing Lyme Disease

clothing

It exists, but it is mainly used by specialists who perform work in dangerous places - logging workers, archaeologists, border guards, and agricultural workers. Also fishermen and hunters. Modern suits have traps - pockets, places impregnated with insecticides. Since the cost of overalls is at least 1800 rubles, ordinary nature lovers are in no hurry to use it.

On a note!

If there is no special suit, you must wear trousers, a jacket with long sleeves, socks, and a hat. The sleeves must be cuffed, and the trousers must be tucked into the socks. In this case, the tick will not be able to reach the skin, after a while it will fall to the ground.

Inspection

Repellents

On a note!

Public prevention of tick-borne borreliosis consists in informing the population about the danger of the disease, the epidemic state, parks, forests, squares, the destruction of rodents - mice, rats. Since there is no vaccination against Lyme disease, non-specific preventive measures are the main way to protect.

What to do after a bite

vaccine against the latter disease only. Tick-borne encephalitis is a viral infection, when it is detected, antiviral drugs are administered to activate the immune system. To prevent the disease, 3 vaccines are made with a break of 1 month, 1 year. The effect persists for 3 years.

Is there a vaccination against borreliosis - specific protection against this tick-borne infection? Is it possible to get a guarantee that a person will not get sick with either borreliosis or tick-borne encephalitis, which often occurs along with the first infection? What preventive measures should a person take in order not to get infected?

The concept of tick-borne infections

The name tick-borne infections combines a group of infectious diseases that occur after the bite of ticks containing pathogens. The causative agent is not the tick itself, but the viruses and bacteria that live and multiply in it. These diseases are classified as endemic, that is, they are not common everywhere, but in certain regions.

Are all insects dangerous to humans? Only a part of ticks are infected with infectious agents, therefore, the disease after a bite may not develop. However, it is impossible to determine whether a tick is infected by the appearance of the insect.

In particular, tick-borne infections include borreliosis and tick-borne encephalitis. These diseases often occur together, in the form of mixed infection. If we consider infections separately, then borreliosis occurs several times more often than tick-borne encephalitis.

Insects love relatively cool weather and dark places. Therefore, they are more common in the north of the country.

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The essence of borreliosis

Ixodid tick-borne borreliosis is one of the most common diseases that develop after a tick bite. The borrelia that causes this disease is not a virus, but a special bacterium that lives in ticks. In its morphological properties, it occupies an intermediate position between viruses and bacteria.

Its presence in the insect is determined in a special laboratory dealing with tick-borne infections. An important condition for the definition of a microorganism is that the insect must be alive. Otherwise, the bacterium dies along with the tick, and it becomes impossible to determine its presence.

Unlike tick-borne encephalitis, Lyme disease, as borreliosis is also called, occurs with other symptoms. During borreliosis, acute and chronic forms are distinguished.

First, nonspecific symptoms are observed in the form of fever up to 38 ° C, general malaise, moderate headache.

The acute form is characterized by two options:

1. The disease is accompanied by a characteristic reddening of the skin at the site of insect suction - an erythemal form.
2. This redness may not be - in this case, there is an erythema-free form.

With a chronic process, symptoms of damage to the skin, bones and joints, and the nervous system develop.

Specific erythema, which occurs in some cases at the site of tick suction, is as follows:

1. The site of hyperemia has a rounded shape and clear boundaries.
2. The size of hyperemia can be different - from a few millimeters to several centimeters.
3. Erythema quickly becomes bright, and in the center of it there is an area of ​​enlightenment.
4. Gradually, the size of hyperemia decreases, and she turns pale.

What are the consequences of pathology?

Residual effects accompanying borreliosis mainly affect the musculoskeletal system and the nervous system. The appearance of these symptoms is observed after an acute period, when the process becomes chronic.

The defeat of the osteoarticular system occurs in the form of pain in the muscles and joints, aggravated by changing weather. They can bother a person for several years, sometimes for life.

The pathology of the nervous system develops 5-7 years after the chronicity of the disease. There are phenomena of encephalopathy, radicular lesions. In some cases, paresis and paralysis of the limbs may develop.

Sometimes there is a chronic skin lesion in the form of areas of compaction and peeling. Periodically, redness may occur, resembling primary erythema.

Why is vaccination needed?

You need to get vaccinated against tick-borne infections for several reasons:

1. In order not to get sick with encephalitis and borreliosis.
2. If the disease nevertheless developed, the vaccination gives the course of the disease in a milder form.
3. To avoid serious complications.
4. So that the process does not become chronic.

However, many people underestimate the importance of vaccination and refuse to carry out preventive vaccinations.

Who is at risk of contracting tick-borne infections?

When visiting the forest zone, you must wear special protective clothing. It should cover the body as much as possible, have cuffs on the sleeves and legs. Pants must be tucked into boots, and hair must be completely removed in a headdress.

It is important to know that ticks are most active in the short period from late April to early June. At this time, it is better to refrain from visiting the forest belt. If this is still necessary, you need to use special repellents that repel insects.

After returning from the forest, you need to examine yourself well for the presence of a tick. These insects contain an anesthetic in their saliva, so a person does not even notice that he has been bitten. A tick can stay on the human body for several days and all this time secrete borreliae into the blood.

Preventive actions

At the moment, a specific protective vaccine against ixodid borreliosis has not been created. There is only specific prevention of tick-borne encephalitis. A person can protect himself from borreliosis only by non-specific measures. They include:

1. Measures to protect against insect attacks - protective clothing and repellents.
2. Treatment of the bite site with antiseptics.
3. The study of the tick in a special laboratory.
4. ELISA blood test for the detection of specific antibodies.
5. Taking doxycycline for several days.

Who should be vaccinated:

1. Anyone can receive a vaccination against tick-borne encephalitis and borreliosis at will.
2. Mandatory vaccination is carried out for children and people from risk groups.

The vaccine is called Encevir and Encepur. Vaccination begins in a child from the age of one. It consists of two stages, between which at least a month must pass. After a year, the first revaccination is carried out. Subsequent revaccination is carried out with a three-year interval.

Security measures

Since tick-borne encephalitis and borreliosis often occur together, the same preventive measures can be used to protect against borreliosis as for encephalitis.

If you find a stuck tick, you need to carefully remove the insect so as not to damage it. The bite site is treated with an antiseptic. Ticks are examined in the laboratory to detect the causative agent of infections.

Sometimes the manifestations of the disease do not occur immediately, but several weeks after infection. To find out if there is an infection, you need to donate blood to detect specific antibodies - class M immunoglobulins. Their presence indicates an acute tick-borne infection in the body. If antibodies are detected, this is an indication for a course of anti-borreliosis treatment in an infectious diseases hospital.

After an insect bite, an intramuscular injection of anti-encephalitis human immunoglobulin is carried out. To prevent the development of borreliosis, Doxycycline is prescribed for several days.

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Although there is no specific prevention of borreliosis, vaccination against endemic infectious diseases is still necessary.

Tick-borne borreliosis (Lyme disease, tick-borne erythema) is a disease that develops as a result of the bite of an ixodid tick infected with Borrelia. The causative agent of borreliosis affects the skin, joints and nervous system. There is no vaccination against Lyme disease, and long-term immunity is not developed even after illness.

Way of infection with borreliosis

Lyme disease got its name from the city of Lyme in Connecticut (USA). There, for the first time, the pathogen was isolated - the bacterium Borrelia burgdorferi, which gave the disease a second name. The reservoir of infection are infected birds and mammals. The transmission of Borrelia is provided by ticks from the genus Ixodes - they also carry tick-borne encephalitis and can transmit both diseases in one bite at the same time. Borreliosis is less dangerous than tick-borne encephalitis - the victim has much more chances for a successful recovery, but it must be taken into account that ticks infected with borreliosis are much more common than ticks carrying the encephalitis virus.

It is known that Borrelia can be transmitted during pregnancy from mother to fetus. However, the manifestations of Lyme disease in infants infected before birth have not been recorded.

Prevention of borreliosis

The best way to protect against ticks is special clothing with cuffs at the wrists and ankles and regular (once every 2-3 hours) inspection of each other. The detected tick must be carefully tied with a thread, pulled out without tearing off the head, and try to send it for analysis. The maximum activity of ticks occurs at the end of spring and the end of summer-beginning of autumn.

If the analysis showed that the tick was infected with Borrelia, then the disease can be stopped even before the first symptoms appear. For this, certain antibiotics are prescribed to the patient within 5 days after the bite. It is not recommended to take medications on your own - only after a positive response from the laboratory.

Symptoms of borreliosis

The incubation period for Lyme disease is 3 to 32 days. One of the first signs is ring-shaped redness at the site of the bite (erythema annulare migrans). It gradually increases in size, the patient may experience pain and itching in this area, general weakness, headache. The temperature rises. If left untreated, from the 4th-5th week of the disease, vomiting develops, increased light and sound sensitivity, symptoms of damage to the nervous system appear: para- and tetraparesis (impaired ability to move arms and legs normally, respectively), paresis of the facial nerves (the patient loses the ability to control muscles faces: speech becomes slurred, there are problems with chewing, cannot close his eyes, etc.). The pathogen also affects the heart muscle and joints. A person experiences pain in the eyes - iritis or iridocyclitis may develop.

In the later stages of the disease, pain and swelling in the joints are accompanied by memory and speech disorders, visual and hearing impairments, pain in the hands and feet. Atrophic acrodermatitis can develop on the skin in the form of blue-red spots on the limbs. The spots merge and become inflamed. The skin at the site of the spots atrophies and becomes like tissue paper.
For the diagnosis of borreliosis, a search for borreliosis is carried out by PCR in the blood, skin, cerebrospinal and joint fluid. In its external manifestations, Lyme disease is similar to allergic dermatitis, tick-borne encephalitis (and it is very important to accurately establish the absence of tick-borne encephalitis virus in the blood), cardiomyopathy and a number of systemic diseases (rheumatoid arthritis, Reiter's disease), etc.

Reusable borreliosis

The peculiarity of borreliosis is also that even a fully transferred disease does not give long-term stable immunity. Borrelia hide in the lymph nodes of an infected person and, being there, do not allow the immune system to fully respond to the introduction of foreign organisms. As a result, in areas endemic for borreliosis, local residents can get Lyme disease more than once.

Do you know that when blood is sucked, the parts of the body between the sclerites (compacted areas of the chitinous cover of the tick) stretch and the ticks (females, nymphs, larvae) increase in size up to 300 times?

Do you know that the release of ticks from shelters from the litter after winter can be extended for several months. It is known that the peak of the release of mites after winter occurs when birch buds bloom. The daily activity of ticks is associated with illumination, (they usually do not attack at night). If it is very hot during the day, then the activity is more in the morning and in the evening, if the temperature is below 10 - 12 degrees. C - ticks are not active. Ticks do not like moisture (until the dew has dried, they do not attack).

Do you know that, if a tick has attacked, it “thinks” for 2 hours before launching its proboscis, choosing a suction site. If you remove a tick before it has begun to feed, infection does not occur, therefore at least every 2 hours self-inspection or mutual inspection is required.

In Russia, there are 6 genera of ticks. The female attacks the host, attaches itself and feeds on blood for 10 days, then disappears, lays eggs in the soil and dies.

The threat posed by ticks living in Russia remains the highest in the world, not only in terms of the prevalence of diseases, but also the severity of the consequences. The strain of the tick-borne encephalitis virus that circulates in European countries does not pose a threat to life, while deaths have been registered in Russia after being bitten by an infected tick, and more than 25% of those affected by the attack of ticks remained disabled.

Every year, according to medical institutions, 7-8 thousand residents of Moscow and the Moscow region who have suffered from tick bites seek medical help. The tick bite itself is not dangerous, but if the tick is infected with the tick-borne encephalitis virus, or borreliosis, then there is a threat to the health of the victim.

Where is the disease registered?

At present, the tick-borne encephalitis disease is registered almost throughout Russia (about 50 territories of the constituent entities of the Russian Federation are registered), where there are its main carriers - ticks. The most disadvantaged regions in terms of incidence are: the Urals, West Siberian, East Siberian and Far East regions, and from those adjacent to the Moscow region - Tver and Yaroslavl.

When leaving for a territory endemic for tick-borne encephalitis, is it necessary to receive prophylactic vaccinations against this disease? Specific immunoglobulin against tick-borne encephalitis (seroprophylaxis) is indicated to be administered to persons with a tick bite that occurred in a territory endemic for tick-borne encephalitis, no later than 4 days from the moment of suction. The territory of Moscow and the Moscow region is safe for tick-borne encephalitis.

Where can I find out if there is a risk of infection in the area of ​​interest anddo i need to get vaccinated?

The list of disadvantaged territories as of the current year, approved by the Federal Service for Supervision of Consumer Rights Protection and Human Welfare, is available in medical institutions and on the Internet on the website of the Office of Rospotrebnadzor for the city of Moscow http://www.77rospotrebnadzor.ru/ press -center.

The study of ticks for infection with the tick-borne encephalitis virus can be carried out in the department of especially dangerous infections of the microbiological laboratory of the FGUZ "Center for Hygiene and Epidemiology in Moscow (Grafsky lane 4/9 tel. 687-40-47).

What are the main signs of the disease?

The disease is characterized by spring-summer seasonality associated with the period of greatest activity of ticks. The incubation (hidden) period lasts more often than 10-14 days, with fluctuations from 1 to 60 days.

The disease begins acutely, accompanied by chills, severe headache, a sharp rise in temperature to -38-39 degrees, nausea, and vomiting. Concerned about muscle pain, which is most often localized in the neck and shoulders, thoracic and lumbar back, limbs. The appearance of the patient is characteristic - the face is hyperemic (red), hyperemia often extends to the trunk.

Who is susceptible to infection?

All people are susceptible to infection with tick-borne encephalitis, regardless of age and gender. Persons whose activities are associated with being in the forest are most at risk: employees of timber industry enterprises, geological exploration parties, builders of roads and railways, oil and gas pipelines, power lines, topographers, hunters, tourists. Citizens become infected in suburban forests, forest parks, garden plots.

The population protection system is the basis of sanitary and educational work.

Special personal protective equipment:

• processing clothes with chemicals;
• special (anti-encephalitis) clothing.

Environmental transformation measure:

• clearing the territory (in children's health camps, it is better not to have bushes along the paths, but flower beds);
• destruction of tick vectors - carrying out deratization;
• elimination of conditions for life and attraction of rodents (clearing territories, garbage collection, etc.)

How can you protect yourself from tick-borne encephalitis?

The disease of tick-borne encephalitis can be prevented with the help of non-specific and specific prophylaxis.

Non-specific individual (personal) protection of people includes:

• Compliance with the rules of behavior in a territory dangerous for ticks (carry out self and mutual inspections every 10-15 minutes to detect ticks; it is not recommended to sit down and lie down on the grass; camping and spending the night in the forest should be in areas devoid of grass vegetation or in dry pine forests on sandy soils; after returning from the forest or before spending the night, it is necessary to remove clothes, carefully examine the body and clothes; it is not recommended to bring freshly picked plants, outerwear and other items into the room that may contain ticks; inspect dogs and other animals to detect and remove from them clinging and sucking ticks);
• Wearing special clothing. In the absence of special clothing, dress in such a way as to facilitate a quick inspection for the detection of ticks; wear plain light-colored clothes; tuck trousers into boots, stockings or socks with a tight elastic band, the upper part of the clothing into trousers; sleeve cuffs should fit snugly to the arm; shirt collars and trousers should have fasteners or have a tight fastener under which a tick cannot crawl; put on a hood on your head, sewn to a shirt, jacket or tuck your hair under a scarf, hat.

How to remove a tick?

To remove the tick and the initial treatment of the bite site, you should contact the trauma center, or remove it yourself. The tick should be removed very carefully so as not to cut off the proboscis, which is deeply and strongly strengthened for the entire period of suction.

When removing a tick, the following guidelines should be followed:

• grab the tick with tweezers or fingers wrapped in clean gauze as close as possible to its mouth apparatus and holding it strictly perpendicular to the bite surface, turn the body of the tick around the axis, remove it from the skin;
• disinfect the bite site with any means suitable for these purposes (70% alcohol, 5% iodine, alcohol-containing products).
• after removing the tick, wash your hands thoroughly with soap and water.
• if a black dot remains (separation of the head or proboscis), treat with 5% iodine and leave until natural elimination.

The removed tick is recommended to be examined for infection with Borrelia and the TBE virus in the laboratory. Ticks taken from a person are placed in a hermetically sealed container with a small piece of slightly damp cotton wool and sent to the laboratory. If it is impossible to study the tick, it should be burned or poured with boiling water.

Measures of specific prevention of tick-borne encephalitis:

Preventive vaccinations against tick-borne encephalitis are carried out for persons of certain professions working in endemic foci or traveling to them (business travelers, students of construction teams, tourists, people traveling on vacation, to garden plots). All persons traveling to work or leisure in disadvantaged areas must be vaccinated.

Emergency seroprophylaxis is carried out for unvaccinated persons who applied in connection with the suction of a tick in the territory endemic for tick-borne viral encephalitis.

Where can I get vaccinated against tick-borne encephalitis?

In Moscow, in all administrative districts, from March to September, vaccination stations operate annually on the basis of polyclinics, medical units, health centers of educational institutions: (in the Western Administrative District - in the children's clinic No. 119; in the polyclinics for adults: No. 209, No. 162 and the Moscow State University polyclinic No. 202), as well as the Central vaccination station based on polyclinic No. 13 (Trubnaya St., 19, building 1, telephone: 621-94-65).

When should I be vaccinated against tick-borne encephalitis?

Only a doctor can give advice on vaccination.

You can vaccinate children from 3 years old and adults with the Encevir vaccine (Russia) with the Encepur vaccine (Germany) - children from 1 year old and adults.

Vaccination against tick-borne encephalitis should be started 1.5 months in advance (Russia) or 1 month in advance. (Germany) before leaving for an unfavorable territory.

Vaccination with a domestic vaccine consists of 2 injections, the minimum interval between which is 1 month. After the last injection, at least 14 days must pass before leaving for the outbreak. During this time, immunity is developed. A year later, it is necessary to make a revaccination, which consists of only 1 injection, then the revaccination is repeated every 3 years.

Vaccination with the vaccine "Encepur" three times for 21 days.

If before departure a person does not have time to be vaccinated in emergency cases, it is possible to administer human immunoglobulin against tick-borne encephalitis before leaving for an unfavorable territory (pre-exposure prophylaxis), the effect of the drug appears after 24-48 hours and lasts about 4 weeks.

What should you do and where to turn if you are not vaccinated and a tick has been sucked while visiting an area that is unfavorable for tick-borne encephalitis?

Seroprophylaxis is carried out for unvaccinated persons - the introduction of human immunoglobulin against tick-borne encephalitis no later than the 4th day after the tick is sucked (around the clock):

• adults at the Research Institute of Emergency and Emergency Medical Care. Sklifosovsky (Moscow, Sukharevskaya Square, 3);
• children in the Children's Clinical Hospital No. Filatov (Moscow, Sadovaya-Kudrinskaya, 15).

Where to conduct a laboratory study of ticks?

Studies of ticks for infestation with pathogens of natural focal infections are carried out at the FBUZ "Federal Center for Hygiene and Epidemiology", FBUZ "Center for Hygiene and Epidemiology in Moscow", at the Central Research Institute of Epidemiology of Rospotrebnadzor.

When contacting the laboratory, it is necessary to provide information on the date and territory on which the tick was sucked (region, region, settlement).

Where to conduct a laboratory blood test?

Upon receipt of a positive result of a laboratory test, it is necessary to urgently seek medical help in medical institutions.

Tick-borne borreliosis (synonyms: Lyme disease, Lyme borreliosis, ixodid tick-borne borreliosis) are transmissible natural focal infections with an acute or chronic course, in which skin damage is possible. Nervous, cardiovascular systems, liver and musculoskeletal system.

The causative agent of Lyme disease, the spirochete Borrelia burgdorferi, is transmitted by ixodid ticks.

A person becomes infected by a transmissible way - when a tick is sucked, the pathogen is transmitted with saliva.

Many species of small mammals, ungulates, and birds are reservoirs of the pathogen and "feeders" of ticks. In Russia, the main hosts are small rodents - bank and red-gray voles, housekeeper voles and wood mice.

There is no official list of territories endemic for tick-borne borreliosis. The area of ​​distribution of this disease is wider than the area of ​​tick-borne encephalitis. Cases of tick-borne borreliosis are also registered in territories free of tick-borne encephalitis.

Incubation period ranges from 3 to 45 days (average 12-14 days), according to some authors up to 60 days. The ability of the pathogen to long-term persistence in the body determines the formation of chronic forms of the disease, which occurs in the form of systemic organ damage.

Clinical manifestations. In most patients, a characteristic skin lesion in the form of migrating annular erythema develops at the site of the entrance gate. However, not always the pathological process can be limited only to skin lesions. There are changes in the regional lymphatic apparatus, pain in muscles, joints, fever, signs of intoxication. In cases caused by a large dose and pathogenicity of the pathogen, it spreads through the blood and lymphatic vessels to the central nervous system, myocardium, muscles, joints, liver, spleen. In such cases, the second stage of the disease develops, in which various symptoms of neuroborreliosis (meningitis, polyneuritis, myelitis), arthritis, myositis, pericarditis, hepatitis, etc.

In 20-45% of patients, a form of the disease is observed without local skin changes. Diagnosis in such cases by clinical signs is almost impossible. Only carrying out serological diagnostic methods can make it possible to make a correct diagnosis.

Often the disease proceeds in mild, erased forms.

Measures for the specific prevention of tick-borne borreliosis have not been developed. In this regard, the main measures to prevent the disease are non-specific prophylaxis methods (see Tick-borne encephalitis).

When a tick is sucked in the forest park areas of Morskva and the Moscow region, it is necessary to remove the tick and carry out the initial treatment of the suction site in the trauma centers of the city, it is desirable to save the tick for further research on infection with borrelia (see Tick-borne encephalitis).

When clinical manifestations appear, you should contact the infectious disease specialist in a medical institution. A patient with suspected tick-borne borreliosis should undergo serological blood tests.

Studies of ticks for infestation with Borrelia can be carried out in a laboratory that performs this type of study (see Tick-borne encephalitis).

Upon receipt of positive results of a laboratory test of a tick for infestation with Borrelia, it is necessary to contact an infectious disease specialist or your doctor for examination and possible prescription of antibiotics.

Migrant ticks: in Russia it is easier to catch borreliosis than encephalitis.

© RIA Novosti illustration. Alina Polyanina, Depositphotos / Erik_Karits

Every year, several thousand cases of borreliosis infection are registered in Russia. This infection, like encephalitis, is carried by forest ticks. There is no vaccine against it. What causes the disease and why it is dangerous - in the material of RIA Novosti.

The causative agent of borreliosis is Borrelia bacteria related to spirochetes, which live in the body of ordinary forest ticks of the Ixodes family. They do not cause any trouble to arthropods, but the immunity of mammals is powerless against them. Having stuck to the skin of a person or animal, the tick injects saliva to anesthetize the bite site. With it, microbes and penetrate into the blood.

If a domestic goat or cow is infected with borreliosis, the infection can enter the human body with raw milk.

From chills to disability

The first symptoms - high fever, chills, weakness, muscle aches - appear on the fifth or seventh day after infection. The bite site swells, a pink or bluish rash forms on the skin - erythema. However, sometimes at this stage the disease is almost asymptomatic. According to a recent study, pathogenic bacteria have learned to trick our immune system by producing a protein that suppresses the body's initial immune response.

The disease is stopped if you consult a doctor in time and take a course of antibiotics. Otherwise, it passes into the second phase: borrelia with blood and lymph flow are carried throughout the body, affecting the brain. Fever and rash are replaced by neurological symptoms: headache, numbness of the extremities, inflammation of the trigeminal or facial nerve, meningitis and meningoencephalitis are not uncommon. After two or three months, borreliosis reaches the joints, causing infectious arthritis, which is fraught with disability.

© Tina Carvalho, University of Hawaii at Manoa

The causative agent of borreliosis is Borrelia burgdorferi. One of three pathogenic bacteria of this genus.

Prevention instead of vaccination

For the first time, doctors paid attention to borreliosis in 1975 in the USA, in the city of Lyme. Hence the second name of the infection is Lyme disease. A few years ago in Russia it was considered exotic. In Moscow, the first case of infection was recorded only in 1985 at the N. F. Gamaleya Research Institute of Epidemiology and Microbiology.

In the last 15-20 years, due to climate change and human economic activity, tick-carriers migrate to Russia from Asia. Moscow and the Moscow region suffer the most. According to Rospotrebnadzor, in the capital region, borreliosis accounts for up to 58% of all infections carried by ticks. Last year, 862 cases of Lyme disease were registered in Moscow.

In the whole country, borreliosis is infected three times more often than viral tick-borne encephalitis. In 2017, 6717 Russians (4.59 per 100 thousand of the population) fell ill from the bite of forest ticks with borreliosis, and 1943 people fell ill with tick-borne encephalitis (1.33 per 100 thousand).

Thanks to mass vaccination in high-risk areas, the incidence of tick-borne encephalitis can be controlled. According to Rospotrebnadzor, 2.7 million Russians were vaccinated against encephalitis in 2017 alone. By April 6, this figure exceeded 700 thousand people. There is no vaccine against borreliosis in the world yet, although they tried to develop and apply it.

The first recombinant Lymerix (LYMErix) vaccine against borreliosis, created in 1998 in the USA, contained the Osp A protein isolated from the shell of pathogenic bacteria. Once in human blood, he provoked the production of antibodies capable of destroying Borrelia. The vaccine has shown its effectiveness in 76% of adults and 100% of children (a total of ten thousand people took part in clinical trials). However, Lymerix was too expensive and some patients complained of side effects, so the vaccine was not widely used and was discontinued in 2002.

© Photo : Penalver et al. / Nature Communications 2017

Scientists find 'Dracula' tick imprisoned in amber 100 million years ago

In 2016, scientists from the University of Massachusetts School of Medicine (USA) announced the creation of a vaccine against borreliosis that does not cause unwanted side effects. The drug "Lymprep" (Lyme PReP), containing specific antibodies to the pathogen bacteria, is currently being tested on animals, but even if everything goes well, it will not be available to the public until five to seven years later. Therefore, while the emphasis is on prevention.

Scientists warn that from ten to twenty percent of ticks carry Borrelia, therefore, when poisoning yourself in nature, wear closed clothes with elastic cuffs, preferably in light colors (you can see it better), use repellents. After long walks in the forest or park, be sure to check yourself for ticks. Having found a bloodsucker, you need to take it for analysis to an epidemiological laboratory, even if there are no signs of malaise.

Tsifox - means of destructionixodid (encephalitic) ticks, bedbugs, cockroaches, flies, mosquitoes, ants and other harmful insects!