Recently, a special patient came to the clinic and said that she was special because her illness, although it did not sound like a big problem, could be fatal. Don't think Dudu is alarmist Oh, don't believe you read on...
The patient woman, 69 years old, the main complaint felt a burst of pain in the right ear, she used a cotton swab to pluck the ear and found that there was blood, she went to the nearby hospital to see a doctor, the doctor said that there was a small bug in the ear, suggested that she come to our hospital to take it out, so she came to Beijing Chaoyang Hospital Otolaryngology Head and Neck Surgery. Under direct hard ear endoscopy, we found that the patient had a small insect in the right ear that was moving. When we tell patients that small bugs can also be fatal, patients feel incredible, isn't it just a bug, just take it out and it's over, how to say that the life is at stake?
Asking about her medical history, she just returned from a trip from Nepal in the early morning, and then asked if she had been to any special places such as jungles, and the patients said no, what was the reason for the imperfect end of the perfect trip?
Or let Du Du give everyone a science popularization of this disease!
1. What is tick?
Ticks (commonly known as grass turtles) have a terrible virus in their bodies called fever with thrombocytopenia syndrome virus (also known as neobunia virus), which can be transmitted to people through tick bites, causing fever with thrombocytopenia syndrome.
2. The harm of ticks
Ticks can cause symptoms such as allergies, ulcers or inflammation, and more seriously, ticks can transmit a variety of diseases. Ticks are usually parasitic in the host areas where the skin is thin and not easily disturbed. In this case, the location of the patient is in the external auditory canal, because the external auditory canal is relatively secretive and not easy to disturb.
3. Tick good time
Ticks are generally active from April to October, tending to occur in hilly areas, and live in forests, bushes, open pastures, grasslands, and mountain soils.
4. What is the route of transmission
It is mainly transmitted by tick bites. After ticks bite the host animal carrying the pathogen, and then bite the person, the pathogen can enter the human body and cause the disease, and the route of infection is suspected to be blood and respiratory secretions.
5. What are the clinical manifestations
Mild cases are characterized by inflammation, which can appear at the site of the bite, local lymph node swelling, patients have edematous erythema, itching, pain and other symptoms, followed by the formation of ulcers, yellow fluid, and soon self-healing. Severe cases have fever, chills, headaches, abdominal pain, nausea, vomiting and other symptoms a few days after tick blood sucking, and even cause acute ascending amyotrophic paralysis, which can lead to respiratory failure and death, called tick paralysis. In this case, the patient had itching and severe pain in the ears after tick bites, and edematous erythema appeared at the bite site.
6. What to do if you find a tick bite
When the tick is found, whether it is on the surface of the human or animal body, or free on the wall, the ground, do not touch it directly with your hands, or even squeeze it, once you find it, you must immediately remove it from the skin, which is very important, if you let it go, it will drill deeper and deeper.
At this time, do not kill the insects immediately, and do not use your hands to forcibly remove them. Because ticks have barbs on their heads and two "feet", they will be buried deep in the skin, and they will only pull tighter and tighter when you forcibly remove them, so that even if you pull the worm out, it is possible that its head will remain in the skin to continue to infect.
The correct way is to hurry to the hospital and leave it to the doctor to deal with . Physician Liu Mo first blocked the inner opening of the patient's external ear canal with an alcohol cotton ball, in order to prevent it from running further inside, and then used an alcohol cotton swab to apply it to its whole body, giving it "anesthesia" and letting it loose on its own, and then we used the middle ear forceps to remove it completely, and after the removal of the live tick, we burned it with fire before putting it into medical garbage.
If the skin comes into contact with ticks, especially the outflow after tick squeezing, it should also be disinfected. For the skin where the tick is removed, we also thoroughly disinfect it topically with alcohol and reconfirm whether there are any residual tick limbs.
At the same time, patients are told to take oral antibiotic treatment, avoid water into the ear in the near future, regular review, and they still need to go through an observation period of about 20 days, once there is a repeated fever (more than 38.5 ° C) and accompanied by sore throat, red spots on the body (small rice grain-sized red spots, similar to bleeding spots, the whole body may appear), etc., they must go to the hospital in time.
7. How to do a good job of protection
(1) Long-term sitting and lying in the main habitat of ticks such as grassland and woods should be avoided as much as possible. When entering tick areas, tighten the cuffs, cuffs and neckline. Go back and shower to rinse off ticks that may be clinging to your body.
(2) In daily life, pay attention to personal hygiene, clean frequently, and prevent parasite breeding.
The tick in the ear of the patient that Dudu talked about today is one of the ox ticks commonly known as cattle lice, which belongs to the arthropods of the tick tick tick family, mainly feeding on the warm-blooded vertebrate body, and is an important vector for many infectious diseases of humans and lower animals. When the butyric acid odor emitted by mammals irritates the larvae, the larvae will adsorb to the host. After sucking the blood, the larvae fall to the ground and molt, becoming an 8-legged nymph. Nymphs also wait for a proper host, suck up blood, and then fall off and molt to become adults.
Later, when we asked the patient if she had ever been exposed to cattle, the patient suddenly remembered that she had once lived in a cattle ranch during her trip, and maybe this was the reason for her illness...
Finally, Du Du still reminds everyone to do a good job of personal protection while traveling abroad to enjoy the natural scenery.
1.Wang Changqing, Ma Zhiqiang, Liu Pinghua, et al. Clinical analysis of 31 patients with ear tick[J]. Chinese Journal of Ear Science, 2017(3).2.Sun Qinglian. The key to strengthening prevention of tick disease is dangerous[J].Healthy Life, 2012(8):25-25.
Author: Du Jingyan
Disclaimer: This article is reproduced for the purpose of transmitting more information. If there is a source labeling error or infringement of your legitimate rights and interests, please contact the author with the proof of ownership, we will correct and delete it in time, thank you.