Don't Underestimate Its Small Size, Beware Of Serious Diseases Due To Kut Bits

Illustration of disease arising from ticks (Freepik)

JAKARTA -bugs include insects that are very small in size, but meal bites can have a major impact on human health. These animals can be an intermediary for the transmission of various diseases because they carry bacteria, viruses, or parasites from infected animals.

When aphids bite and suck human blood, they can inject pathogens into the host's body and cause infections of varying severity.

Launching the Health report, in the United States itself, there are at least 17 types of diseases transmitted through various species of ticks.

The most common disease that occurs is Lyme disease, which accounts for nearly 80 percent of all cases of tick bites. This disease is caused by bacterial infections that can cause symptoms such as fatigue, headaches, and rashes on the skin.

Not only Lyme, ticks can also cause other diseases that are no less serious, such as pulsation of parasites that attack red blood cells, andicularemia, potentially severe bacterial infections but can still be treated with antibiotics.

There are also anaplastosis, bacterial infections that resemble the flu, as well as Alpha-gal syndrome, a rare allergic reaction to red meat that can arise after a certain tick.

The level of danger of aphids depends on the geographic location and the type of meal itself. The percentage of pathogen-carrying ticks ranges from 0 to 50 percent. For example, black-legged meales commonly found in America's southeast region rarely carry infections compared to ticks in other regions.

Some pathogens can enter the body in just a short time after a bite. For example, the Powassan virus can be transmitted within 15 minutes after the meal sticks to the skin. However, Lyme disease usually takes longer even more than 24 hours to be transmitted.

Dr. Charlotte Mao, a child infectious disease specialist as well as a member of the Scientific Advisory Council of the Bay Area Lyme Foundation, explains ticks do not jump or fly.

Instead, they wait at the edge of the leaf or grass, stick to the back leg and stick out the front leg, waiting for the passing host.

"Once there are hosts passing, both humans and mealy animals will move and start crawling to certain parts of the body to bite," said Mao.

bugs usually choose a hidden, warm, and moist place in the body such as armpits, back of the knee, groin, ankles, to the scalp. These locations provide ideal conditions for ticks to stick without being detected immediately.

According to a 2020 survey of 722 deer ticks found attached to humans, 16 percent of them were on the thigh, followed by the stomach, waist, and garple areas.

In addition, other bite locations commonly found are the upper back, calf, upper arms, neck, armpits, back of the knee, and the skin of the head. In children, meal tends to bite the area of the head and neck due to their activities that are closer to the grass surface.

Some types of meal also show a tendency for a specific bite location. The lone starbug, which is widely found in the eastern and southeastern regions of the US, often bites the lower part of the body such as the thigh or leg. While dog ticks, which are common in the eastern region of the Rocky Mountains and can carry both anaplasmosis and capsiosis, tend to move up and bite the head or neck.