How to understand if a mosquito or tick bite is dangerous, what to do in case of real risks and how to prevent them? One of the big problems of this summer 2023 is the strong spread of mosquitoes and ticks, which proliferate due to the heat and ideal environmental conditions especially in some areas of our country.
In reality, these are insects that are always present in our days in the summer, but this year they seem to be more dangerous. And one wonders how to avoid mosquito and tick bites and what are the dangers, real risks and possible threats deriving from their bite.
How to understand if a mosquito or tick bite is dangerous and what to do if there is a real risk How to prevent a mosquito or tick bite
How to understand if a mosquito or tick bite is dangerous and what to do in case of real risks
A mosquito bite or a tick bite can be much more than a nuisance and represent a real health problemconsidering that some mosquitoes and ticks, in general but especially this year, can transmit even serious diseases, called arbovirosis.
There are over 100 viruses classified as arboviruses capable of causing disease in humans. Most of these have been classified into families and genera including Togaviridae (Alphavirus), Flaviridae (Flavivirus) and Bunyaviridae (Bunyavirus and Phlebovirus), including Japanese Encephalitis Virus, Rift Valley Fever Virus which can be contracted by the bite of many species of mosquitoes.
There is a risk of contracting diseases from mosquito bites or tick bites and it’s not as distant and rare as a thing as one might think. There are people who are bitten by ticks and contract more or less serious and risky diseases, from the ‘simple’ fever to encephalitis, Lyme disease, Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever (CCHF), Mediterranean spotted fever. In any case, these are diseases that are not transmitted by all ticks but only in areas where there are actually infected ticks.
In most cases, however, the risk that you run for a mosquito bite it is a very strong annoyance, accompanied by itching, burning in the affected area of the body and in some cases very large wheals or fever may occur. In the case of epidermal problems, the solution can be represented by ammonia-based sticks or natural products, such as aloe, bicarbonate which can be mixed with vinegar or honey, or just honey.
If you feel pain in the toe area, you can apply a compress with cold water or ice and wrap it in a cloth because the cold helps tighten the blood vessels and block the spread of toxins transmitted by mosquitoes.
If the wheals are particularly swollen, it is best to disinfect with hydrogen peroxide or euclorine and apply an antihistamine-based cream, or cortisone, or 5% aluminum chloride gel.
To understand if you are, on the other hand, states stung by a tick, you see the tick sticking to the skin and it is enlarged when it has sucked blood. Again, the skin around the stung area swells, turns red, and itches. The symptoms of a tick bite can be, in addition to the red area around the bite, also a general malaise, which manifests itself in weakness, headache, fever, muscle pain.
However, it is also possible that no symptoms appear after a tick bite, so the chances of having contracted any infection are decidedly low. In all cases, if you are stung by a tick, you should remove the tick immediately, and removal should be done by medical personnel in an emergency room or doctor’s office with fine-tipped forceps.
We then proceed with disinfecting the area where the bite occurred, even before removing it and we must undergo a tetanus prophylaxis. We specify that the pharmacological therapies vary according to the type of virus or bacterium inoculated through the bite.
How to prevent a mosquito or tick bite
To avoid the transmission of any diseases but also just annoyances caused by mosquito or tick bites, we must aim for prevention which in this case can only be used using specific products and choosing appropriate clothing.
To protect yourself from mosquito bites and tick bites, just resort to some simple actions and behaviors, such as use repellents on the skinchoosing products based on icaridin (KBR3023) or DEET (N, N-diethyl-m-toluamide) and reapplying the product several times during the day, especially if it’s hot and sweaty.
Also use a certain outfit protects against mosquito bites and tick bites: in fact, it is better to prefer long and opaque clothes (e.g. long sleeves and trousers) and light fabrics suitable for summer, such as cotton, linen, etc., especially if you spend the summer in places or on particularly hot and humid days and evenings.
If you realize a high presence of mosquitoes, the advice is to also apply repellent products on clothes before wearing theman action that helps even more to keep ticks and mosquitoes away.
When you open the windows, then, to prevent mosquitoes and ticks from entering the house, the first thing to do is always keep the mosquito nets closed, or open and close them in a short time without ever leaving them open, otherwise their protective function is clearly lost. For those who do not have mosquito nets, on the other hand, the advice is not to open the windows wide, especially at certain times of the day, but perhaps keep them ajar and think about buying and installing mosquito nets which are certainly a convenience.