When it comes to mosquitoes, it is not uncommon to hear about mosquito-borne diseases occurring in other countries. Ticks are a different story. Most countries around the world are not forced to deal with tick-borne disease outbreaks. For the most part, ticks are an American problem. We all know that lyme disease would be awful to experience, but it seems like more and more tick-borne diseases are being discovered everyday. In reality, a new tick-borne disease has not been discovered in a while, but there already exists several rare forms of tick-borne diseases that are becoming more and more common. One of the most terrifying tick-related medical afflictions is referred to as “tick-paralysis”. Nearly everyday, a tragic story relating to tick-borne disease can be found in the news. One recent story involved a girl who woke up in the morning completely unable to move. It was later determined that the girl sustained a tick bite and developed tick paralysis as a result.
According to doctors in Wheeling, West Virginia, a young girl woke up in her bed unable to move her legs or get out her bed due to a tick bite. The girl’s mother rushed her daughter to the emergency room. Not much time passed before doctors diagnosed the girl’s condition. She has tick paralysis, which is a potentially deadly tick-borne disease. The girl’s mother is a veterinarian tech and she claimed that she had seen similar symptoms in animals. This makes sense given how commonly dogs are bitten by ticks. This similarity was noted by the mother, so she began to frantically search for a bite mark around her daughter’s hair, but she never found one. As it turned out, the bite mark was hidden under the girl’s long hair. The doctors who examined the girl noticed a large tick at the base of her pony tail. Tick paralysis mostly affects young girls, and the ticks are almost always found at the point where the skin meets the hair.
Have you ever worried about contracting tick paralysis?
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