Tiny ticks can cause major health issues

Tiny ticks can cause major health issues

LITTLE ROCK – As fall approaches and Arkansas hunters and outdoors lovers head to the woods to prepare food plots or enjoy a hike, it’s also time to keep a lookout for tiny critters that can cause big problems.

Ticks, often smaller than a millimeter or two, are waiting on low-growing plants to latch onto a passerby. The host may be an animal, but a tick also can secure itself to a person’s clothes and eventually find its way to the skin. From there, it cuts into the skin’s surface and begins to feed. There’s no pain or itching, because ticks secrete small amounts of saliva with anesthetic properties, so that a person or animal can’t feel its presence.

The ADH reported 16 deaths have been caused by tick-borne disease in Arkansas since 2012.

According to the ADH, many varieties of ticks are found throughout the world, but only a few bite and can transmit disease to humans. Arkansans should be most concerned with the American dog tick, the blacklegged tick (commonly called the “deer tick”), the brown dog tick, the Gulf Coast tick and the lone star tick.

The American dog tick is most responsible for the spread of spotted fever. The blacklegged tick (or “deer tick”) can transmit organisms responsible for anaplasmosis, babesiosis and Lyme disease. However, according to the ADH, it is important to note that the pathogen that causes Lyme disease is maintained by wild rodents and other small animals, and is not transmitted everywhere that the blacklegged tick lives. In some regions, particularly in the southern U.S., the blacklegged tick has different feeding habits that make it an unlikely vector in the spread of human disease.

“While we don’t identify Lyme as a predominant disease in Arkansas, we do have some of the country’s highest levels of tick-borne diseases, and you need to prevent tick bites all the time,” said Dr. Susan Weinstein, the State Public Health Veterinarian. “Ticks are serious and carry serious diseases. We do have the highest level of tularemia. We are one of the highest for Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever. So, there really is cause for concern.”

A 2014 report authored by Weinstein and Richard Taffner, the ADH’s Zoonotic Disease Epidemiologist, also revealed that 41 percent of all the state’s reported cases of tick-borne disease that year originated in northwest Arkansas, 22 percent came from central Arkansas and 21 percent came from northeast Arkansas.

Weinstein suggests hunters take precautions before a tick gets in a bite. “One of the best products out there is DEET,” she said. “It does a fairly good job of preventing ticks. Many hunters treat their clothing with Permethrin sprays to repel ticks. Tuck your pants leg down inside your socks and boots so ticks can’t crawl up you as easily. And do a tick check regularly as soon as you get back home.”

The ADH recommends a tick be removed from the skin as soon as possible because disease will not transmit until the tick has been attached for several hours. To remove a tick, follow these steps:

• Use clean, fine-tipped tweezers to grasp the tick as close to the skin’s surface as possible.

• Pull upward with steady, even pressure. Do not twist or jerk the tick; this can cause the mouth-parts to break off and remain in the skin. If this happens, remove the mouth-parts with tweezers. If the mouth cannot be easily removed with clean tweezers, leave it alone and let the skin heal.

• After removing the tick, thoroughly clean the bite area and wash your hands with rubbing alcohol, an iodine scrub, or soap and water.

The Department of Health urges avoiding home remedies, such as “painting” the tick with nail polish or petroleum jelly, or using heat to make the tick come off. The goal is to remove the tick as quickly as possible; don’t wait for the tick to let go.