Four cases of tick paralysis seen in Colorado

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[electroherbalism] Four cases of tick paralysis seen in Colorado

 

 

 

 

Four cases of tick paralysis seen in Colorado

Left undetected, a biting tick can trigger rare, serious disease

Reuters

 

Sept 1, 2006

 

NEW YORK - Over a period of six days in May of this year, the Colorado

Department of Public Health and Environment received accounts of four

cases of

tick paralysis †" a rare but serious disease that can occur with

prolonged

exposure to a biting tick.

 

The four individuals all resided in or had recently visited within 20

miles

of each other in the mountains of north central Colorado, according to an

article in the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, a publication of

the U.S.

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

 

The patients were a 6-year-old girl, a 78-year-old woman, and two men,

ages

58 and 86. Initial symptoms included difficulty walking because of lower

extremity weakness and tingling sensations.

 

The tick causing the disease was embedded in the skin on the patients'

neck

or back and removed within a day or two of the their admission to a

hospital.

Once the tick was removed, symptoms improved within a few days,

although the

three adult patients reported residual weakness several weeks later.

 

The article recommends that people who live in tick-endemic areas should

routinely check their bodies for ticks, especially on the head, neck

and back.

It also recommends insect repellents applied to the skin and clothing to

prevent bites.

 

Doctors need to consider tick paralysis in the differential diagnosis of

ascending paralysis, the authors of the report advise, and to check

patients

with these symptoms for the presence of a tick, especially among

individuals

living in tick-endemic areas in the western part of North America.

 

" Ticks should be removed by grasping the tick close to the patient's skin

with forceps and pulling with a steady, even pressure, " the report states.

 

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URL: _http://www.msnbc. msn.com/id/ 14623302/ _

(http://www.msnbc. msn.com/id/ 14623302/)