Take a look at this map.

If you have found your region and it is not green, this article may not be useless for you...

We are all rejoicing at the arrival of fine spring days. Nature and trees come to life, the first greenery that is pleasing to the eye appears. Everything around comes to life, including the formidable resident of forests and places of mass celebrations of townspeople - the tick. The first recorded tick bite in 2016 occurred in Kemerovo on March 23, in Tomsk on the 29th, and in St. Petersburg even earlier - on March 8. What is a tick, why is it dangerous and how to protect yourself from troubles associated with it - I suggest we discuss it together.

Know the enemy by sight

More precisely, to know completely. Ticks (depending on the stage of their development) are usually from 2 to 5-7 mm in size, with a characteristic color and a dark area on the body. They are quite agile and, regardless of their size, are equally dangerous. The tick's favorite habitat is old dry grass, low bushes, and the outskirts of forests. Tick ​​habitats should be fairly dry, because ticks can be found much less frequently in river floodplains. Ticks live almost throughout the entire territory of Russia, but their greater distribution is observed almost throughout the entire territory of Siberia, in Buryatia, Udmurtia and the Altai Mountains. Unfortunately, more and more often you can catch a tick in those regions where this problem was not so pressing. Some researchers argue that the active spread of ticks (of which there are thousands of species in nature) is an indicator of climate change, which has been talked about so much lately. But today we will only talk about ticks, which are carriers of dangerous infections. By the way, the number of these infections amounts to dozens, but the most dangerous and well-known are tick-borne encephalitis and Lyme disease.

Is it a female or a male that bites?
Both. In this case, the female attaches itself for a long time. Maybe even for a week. But the males are nimble. He bit, drank the blood for an hour or two and went about his business. But both sexes are dangerous. According to statistics, 4-5 percent of the tick population are carriers of Lyme disease and tick-borne encephalitis. Some experts argue that males are more dangerous than females, since their bite passes faster and can simply not be noticed. Indeed, at the first stage of the bite, the tick secretes enzymes that neutralize the victim’s pain receptors, which allows it to securely attach itself to the body. Once the tick has burrowed into the skin, it no longer cares. Taking it out is not that easy. Especially if you are a hare, squirrel or bear and you don’t have special equipment for this on hand. How to distinguish a male from a female? It's simple. Males are smaller. Here is a photo of a couple of ticks in love (not verified). Seen on a date)

What to do to avoid being bitten by a tick?
Most reliable way- stay at home) But if you are a fan of walking through the forest, eating barbecue and cognac, then you just need to be attentive and reasonably careful. You need to do regular body checks. Once an hour. The tick does not bite instantly. He, unlike the rest of us, is never in a hurry. If he is hooked on you, he will look for a “tasty” place, slowly rising higher and higher. The tick's favorite places are the groin, belt, neck, armpit, tailbone. Although, of course, the bite can occur in other places. So check yourself regularly. Use preticks (protective chalk against ticks), tuck in your clothes carefully, and do not go into windbreaks or accumulations of dry grass. The living space of ticks is a couple of tens of centimeters from the ground. They are not bears - they do not climb trees. In general, a person is not a particularly interesting object for a tick - he smells of deodorants, perfume, all in synthetics, no wool. What kind of animal? Your beloved dog and children may suffer much more. This is someone you need to watch especially closely.

Still bitten, the infection!
No matter how hard we try to avoid a bite, sometimes a tick can still stick. Don’t panic, go to the car or take out a special set for this occasion from your backpack. What kind of set is this? In case of a tick bite. If you are a lover of forest walks or an avid gardener, spend half an hour and assemble such a set yourself. We go to the veterinary clinic and buy several plastic devices - pullers for removing the tick. You say - they are for dogs! Why are we worse than dogs? Don't be shy!

At the pharmacy we will buy disposable wet wipes for injections, a pencil filled with iodine or brilliant green. Just a pencil, so as not to get smeared from head to toe from iodine in bottles. A couple of empty plastic sterile tubes with a lid to store the mite for analysis in the laboratory. We will also buy pretix. This is something you should use before going into the forest. The whole set is cheap and looks something like this. They say that there are similar ones already ready-made kits, but why overpay?

All. Your vacation is over. We finish the kebab, but don’t finish the cognac. And in general, more rest, fluids, hot sweet tea and march to the seroprophylaxis point. Doctors will take further action.

Express tick test
All this is good if you are a resident of a large city and during the tick season there is a seroprophylaxis station nearby. And if this is the outback, or you work on shift somewhere where, as the song says, you can only fly by helicopter. In this case, a rapid test for tick-borne encephalitis and Lyme disease would be useful. It would be great to add such a test to our kit. I’m calling my biotech friends with this question. They answer that there are expensive imported tests (I don’t give links, unless you really need to). There are no Russian commercial test systems. However, attempts to create such a test system arise occasionally.

Finnish company. Well done guys, what's up. Is it possible to buy this test in Russia? The answer is no. Sanctioned goods. And the price of 40 euros is also not reasonable...

What to do? Yes, you can create an excellent domestic test. In our age of advanced biotechnology, this is possible. Of course, to make a high-quality test, you need to carry out responsible work according to a clear development plan.

Take a look at the plan

For reference. Please don’t ask why this is so) I don’t understand all this myself, but I can contact the biotechnologists who sketched out this plan so that they can give detailed comments. PM me please. - approx. author

Purchase of chemicals and strip base materials
- Organizing the collection of a representative sample of mites (1000 pcs) for qualification testing of the diagnosticum prototype
- Purchase of a pair of TBEV monoclones and a natural inactivated TBEV pathogen for their optimization
- Purchase of recombinant protein VLSE B.b. for immunization of mice
- Carrying out work on the creation of seven hybridomas ranked by affinity to VLSE, obtaining samples of mAb products ranked by hybridomas
- Preparation of mAb conjugates to TBEV and B.b. with colloidal gold
- Carrying out work to optimize the composition and design of the diagnostic kit in terms of identifying TBEV
- Carrying out work to optimize the composition and design of the diagnosticum in terms of identifying B.b.
- Integration of two parts of the diagnostic kit with the determination of performance characteristics (sensitivity, specificity, reproducibility)
- Study of stability (thermo- and temporal) of the diagnosticum
- Qualification tests of the diagnosticum on a panel of ticks with quality assessment regarding ELISA diagnostics of these pathogens

The bigger problem is not with technology, but with administrative matters. Registration of the test system, its legalization, numerous checks and satisfaction of all sorts of official requirements - this is the most difficult thing. It may take years. In Finland, the test system was made and brought to market within a few months. And she only tests for encephalitis. Our developers can create a test system that simultaneously detects Lyme disease. This is very important, because in case of encephalitis you can protect yourself by vaccination, but there is no vaccine for Lyme disease.

What is such a test system? Similar to the Finnish development, but for two infections. Carrying out the analysis does not represent special labor. The test analyzes not a person, but a tick. We place the tick in a bottle with a special solution and after a few minutes we drip it onto the test strip. No more difficult than a pregnancy test)

Through the use of “smart” chemistry, it is possible to achieve high specificity and sensitivity of the analysis, while preserving tick material for subsequent more precise diagnostics, for example, using the PCR method. And in general, in our age high technology Having such simple things as rapid tests for everything would, in my opinion, be useful. With all due respect to doctors, who by the nature of their work (and quite rightly) are against any independent actions with the body, but the future of humanity is still connected with the development of advanced diagnostic technologies, both genetic and the simplest one, which I write about in this post . I think so. And you?

Overwintered ticks can hide in dry leaves and grass. After hibernation, they need food, so the beginning of spring is the time to look for prey. Ticks cling to all warm-blooded creatures that they meet on their way, these are mice, hedgehogs, hares, cats, dogs, which spread ticks even more throughout the regions of Russia. If you are going to the country or live outside the city, be sure to carry out tick prevention in your area - remove dry branches, leaves and grass, and then do by special means, such as Cifox, Ram, Sipaz Super, Bytex, Acarocide, Breeze, Acaritox.

Wear a hat. Although ticks rarely rise to a height of more than one and a half meters and cannot fly, it is better to protect yourself, because you can bend over for the first flower and pick up a pest from a nearby branch right on your hair. Treat your clothes with anti-tick spray, since there is a very large selection of ticks in stores. Don't spray chemicals, intended for clothing, on the skin!

In which areas of the Moscow region are ticks most active in 2018?

The first tick bites in 2018 were recorded in March in Solnechnogorsk, Lukhovitsky, Shakhovsky and Zaraisky districts. There were no cases of encephalitis or borreliosis infection. Ticks in the Moscow region rarely transmit encephalitis; they mainly transmit Lyme disease and tularemia. If you are planning to travel to an area potentially susceptible to encephalitis, go through. Last year, more than a thousand people voluntarily underwent such a procedure and protected themselves in advance.

As of September 1 last year, vaccinated against tick-borne encephalitis 5186 people, including children - 1350 .

In almost all areas of the Moscow region there is a threat of infection with borreliosis () from a bite. The infection map of the Moscow region warns that in 2018 the most dangerous areas are: Taldomsky, Dmitrovsky, Istrinsky, Voskresensky, Volokolamsky, Shatursky, Lukhovitsky, Egoryevsky, Domodedovo, Ramensky, Noginsky, Pavlovo-Posadsky, Ozersky, Orekhovo-Zeuvsky, Lyuberetsky, Ruzsky, Naro-Fominsk, Ruzsky, Pushkinsky, Kolomensky, Serpukhovsky, Stupinsky, Solnechnogorsk, Khimki, Lotoshinsky, Klinsky, Shchelkovsky, Mytishchi, Krasnogorsky.

As of September 1, 2017, medical organizations in Moscow and the region are registered 9521 cases of tick bites, including on children - 2792 .

The most disadvantaged areas at the moment: Dmitrovsky, Taldomsky, Shatursky, Kolomensky, Noginsky, Orekhovo-Zuevsky, Pavlovo-Posadsky, Balashikha.

Although Moscow parks are treated against ticks, there remains a risk of encountering a tick in a city park or square. After your walk, check yourself and your pets. Ticks like to attach themselves to humans on the back of the head, neck, armpits and groin areas.

The number of people bitten is growing every day. Last year, the number of people infected with encephalitis in the Moscow region was about 400. In 2016, more than 500,000 people were officially reported to have been bitten by ticks.

At the end of August 2017, calls to emergency rooms and other medical institutions regarding tick bites were recorded in the following disadvantaged tick-infested areas:

• Ramensky district – 485
• Dmitrovsky district – 465
• Kolomna – 432
• Lyubertsy – 424
• Serpukhov district – 423
• Balashikha – 412
• Noginsk district – 368
• Orekhovo-Zuevsky district – 310
• Naro-Fominsk district – 299
• Sergiev Posad district – 274
• in the rest municipalities between 20 and 200 cases have been reported.

What should I do if bitten by a tick?

If you are bitten in the Moscow region or any other region, first of all, carefully remove it. If you have not been vaccinated, save the tick for later transfer for research. In Moscow this point is located at Grafsky Lane, building 4, building 2, 3, 4 - “Center for Hygiene and Epidemiology in Moscow”. If you receive a positive result from the laboratory, immediately contact a specialized medical institution in your region for treatment.

If you are unable to take the tick for laboratory testing, or you did not save it, get tested for antibodies two to four weeks after the bite.

In the spring of 2017, about 60 thousand Russians went to medical institutions about encephalitis tick bites. Indicator in this year 1.6 times less than for the same period last year and generally corresponds to normal average values, Rospotrebnadzor notes.

In Moscow, which is relatively safe from this point of view, from May 4 to May 10, 567 people went to medical institutions due to tick bites. Last year this figure was approximately double.

Doctors note that Muscovites bring ticks with them mainly from other regions of Russia or from abroad. The most common infectious disease affecting residents of the capital region is Lyme disease.

Leading researcher at the Central Research Institute of Epidemiology of Rospotrebnadzor Lyudmila Karan told RT that the Tver, Kostroma and Yaroslavl regions are among the most dangerous for Muscovites. The fact is that this is where many residents of the capital have their dachas, so people spend the whole season there. Since the prevalence of ticks in these regions is relatively high, the likelihood of getting bitten also increases.

Rare cases

Despite the fact that most cases of infection in Moscow are “imported”, there is a chance of contracting the disease in the capital region.

“Ticks bite not only geologists in the taiga, but also summer residents, and those who went to nature for the weekend, and even (very rarely) those walking in a park not in the very center of the city. If you live in an endemic region or are going there on a business trip or vacation during the tick season, be sure to get vaccinated against tick-borne encephalitis,” the expert advises.

It's better to overestimate than to underestimate

According to doctor and scientific journalist Alexei Vodovozov, the danger of ticks is often underestimated.

“If they just bit, it wouldn’t be so bad. The most a big problem The fact is that these arthropods carry a bunch of infections. Here is just an approximate list of troubles: tick-borne encephalitis, tick-borne borreliosis (Lyme disease), rash tick-borne typhus, relapsing tick-borne typhus, Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever and Q fever, tularemia, ehrlichiosis,” he noted.

Transmission of encephalitis occurs in the first minutes after tick bite. The incubation period of the disease lasts 10-14 days, but there are cases when it appears the very next day after infection or “sleeps” for up to two months. A tick removed from the skin is examined in the laboratory for encephalitis and other infectious diseases. However, as in the case of other ailments, experts recommend paying attention Special attention prevention.

“It is easier to prevent than to treat. This phrase fits the tick case perfectly,” concludes Alexey Vodovozov. — In endemic areas from May to September, it is better to walk through the forest in thick clothing with buttoned cuffs, use special repellents, and regularly inspect each other to see if there are ticks in the hair, on the back, or in another secluded place. Unlike mosquitoes and bees, when ticks bite, they secrete an anesthetic substance, so without a thorough examination it can go unnoticed for a long time.”

Special danger zone

As Vodovozov notes, in Russia many regions are endemic for tick-borne encephalitis, that is, on their territory there is a natural focus of this disease.

The 2017 Roskomnadzor list includes about 50 districts and regions in which the likelihood of getting an encephalitis tick bite is highest. The most dangerous from this point of view are the Republic of Buryatia, Irkutsk region, Perm region, Sverdlovsk, Tomsk, Novosibirsk and Tyumen regions. Here, the number of cases of encephalitis infection after a tick bite can exceed 40 per 100 thousand population.

According to available statistics, to date in Buryatia, one of the dangerous areas, more than 560 complaints have been recorded since the beginning of the season, more than 200 bites among children. Among the diseases, at least one case of borreliosis was recorded.

Murmansk, Magadan, Nenets Autonomous Okrug, Kamchatka Territory, Volgograd and Astrakhan regions are considered safe areas. In other areas with a low probability of contracting encephalitis from a tick bite, doctors advise wearing clothing that protects the skin.

Currently, there are no cases of human infection with encephalitis in the Moscow region. However, in neighboring regions, for example, Tver or Yaroslavl, this happens every year. Ticks living in the Moscow region are mainly carriers of Lyme disease and tularemia. Those who travel to potentially dangerous areas are vaccinated against tick-borne encephalitis. Over the past year, more than a thousand people have passed it.

Infection with borreliosis (Lyme disease) through ixodid ticks in 71.4% of cases it is associated with infections in the regions in which the person lives. Infected ticks are detected in almost all areas of the Moscow region. There are special maps that mark the places where infected ticks were attached, and, using previous forecasts, for 2017 the following most dangerous areas of the Moscow region are indicated: Voskresensky, Egoryevsky, Shatursky, Taldomsky, Istrinsky, Volokolamsky, Lotoshinsky, Naro-Fominsky, Mozhaisk , Ruzsky, Kolomensky, Lukhovitsky, Ozersky, Lyuberetsky, Domodedovo, Noginsky, Orekhovo-Zuevsky, Pavlovo-Posadsky, Ramensky, Sergiev-Posadsky, Pushkinsky, Serpukhovsky, Solnechnogorsky, Klinsky, Stupinsky, Khimki, Krasnogorsky, Shchelkovsky, Mytishchi districts, Balashikha, Zheleznodorozhny, Dzerzhinsky, Ivanteevka, Zhukovsky, Korolev, Fryazino, Lobnya.

Infected ticks live not only in the Moscow region; they can often be found in city parks and squares. You can accidentally bring along a couple of individuals that can attach themselves a few days after the walk. They can also be brought into your home by animals after a walk or with a bouquet of wildflowers.
There are the most delicious places where ticks are usually attached. These are the back of the head, the neck area and the axillary and groin areas, the area at the navel and places where clothes do not fit tightly.

Based on percentages, the number of people bitten, as well as the number of infected people, is increasing. Therefore, in order to reduce these numbers, Rospotrebnadzor of the Moscow Region recommends vaccination against encephalitis in advance and observing safety precautions when traveling outside the city.
Ticks are not uncommon in the Moscow region; in 2016, with the help of monitoring from special services, dangerous areas were identified.
From year to year, a month before spring, you can start vaccination; it consists of a series of vaccinations, however, if you have previously had a similar experience, you will be given a revaccination.

You need to understand that ticks inhabit not only the dangerous areas indicated on the map, so you must follow safety precautions no matter where you are.

After analyzing the diseases, 397 cases of the disease were registered in 46 medical institutions in the Moscow region, which is more than 48.1% higher than in previous years. It happens that people are bitten by imported individuals, that is, brought from neighboring regions. As a rule, this happened to people who were not vaccinated against tick-borne encephalitis.

Ticks 2017 dangerous areas on the map

Forecasts for the next season are based on data from last year and weather conditions.

Ticks do not change their location dramatically, so in 2017 the dangerous areas that are indicated on the activity map do not have any fundamental changes.
In addition to paying attention to the territorial features and danger of the area in which you are located, you can independently protect yourself from bites by choosing closed clothing and using protective equipment that can be purchased in the store.

Ticks in the Moscow region have two periods of active hunting, in early spring and with the beginning of autumn, therefore the dangerous areas indicated on the map are relevant throughout the entire period of persistent warm weather.