Encephalitis: treatment. Vaccination against tick-borne encephalitis: vaccinate. What is encephalitis?

The season of mushrooms, berries, work in the garden and walks in nature is a great time, but at the same time it carries a serious danger. After all, deadly encephalitis can be infected very simply: a tick bite is enough. If you want to protect yourself and your loved ones, you need to know what is encephalitis, what are its symptoms, and also to have information about preventive measures.

Encephalitis: Definition

Encephalitis is an inflammation of the brain, which has serious consequences for human health, up to a lethal outcome. Many know what encephalitis is, but few know that there are several types of this disease, as well as the causes that cause it.

Types of encephalitis

Encephalitis is divided into primary and secondary. The first - an independent inflammation of the brain, caused by various factors (bite of a tick or mosquito, various infections). Secondary arises against the background of other diseases, for example, flu, abscess, measles.

Also encephalitis is divided for reasons that caused it. It can be infectious, toxic, allergic and infectious-allergic. Inflammation can occur in different parts of the brain. Accordingly, encephalitis is divided into limited and diffuse. The disease can occur in acute, premature and chronic form.

Tick-borne encephalitis: mechanism of infection

What is tick-borne encephalitis? This is a special type of viral disease. Tick-borne encephalitis affects the nervous system, central and peripheral. The triggered disease leads to either immobilization or death.

The main culprit of this form of encephalitis is the ixodid tick. The carriers of the disease are two types of ticks: taiga and European. A person can get infected in two ways: after an insect bite or by eating the milk of an infected cow or goat. The virus can be localized in both the spinal and the brain.

A distinctive feature of tick-borne encephalitis is its seasonality. The disease is observed in the spring-autumn period, moreover, in a leap. Its peaks occur in May-June and August-September.

It is important to note that the disease is transmitted immediately after the bite. Duration of bloodsucking does not affect infection. After all, it is known that unlike a female that feeds on blood for several days, a male sucks blood for a few hours and his bite is difficult to notice.

Thanks to the latest research of scientists, it became possible to divide tick-borne encephalitis into three subspecies: Western, Siberian and Far Eastern. It is noteworthy that the severity of the disease and the number of deaths in all these categories are different. Thus, mortality from the Western type is only 1-3%, and from the Far East it reaches 40%. It depends on how deeply the virus penetrated into the brain. Next, we will talk about what encephalitis tick-borne, how to recognize it, treat it and prevent it in more detail.

How to recognize: symptoms

After the bite of the infected tick begins the incubation period lasting an average of 14 days, sometimes it lasts up to 30 days. The place of the bite often blushes (there is erythema). But only on this basis it is not necessary to say that you are infected, because erythema is accompanied by a number of diseases caused by bites, for example, tick-borne borreliosis.

Encephalitis can proceed in different ways and has different manifestations. About the onset of the illness says an increase in body temperature to 40 degrees. The fever can last 2-10 days. All this time the patient is disturbed by an ache and pain in the extremities, nausea and vomiting. The most painful are those limbs that will eventually be immobilized due to encephalitis. There is a strong flow of blood to the skin of the neck, face and chest.

The patient may have an unclear consciousness, in acute cases develops into a coma. Sometimes there is a decrease in hearing.

Most often the disease is mild. Especially if vaccination against tick-borne encephalitis has been made. The infection passes secretly and is accompanied by an increase in body temperature.

Forms of the disease

Although the disease and proceeds in different versions, you can still distinguish a characteristic sign that you really have encephalitis. Treatment in the future will be concentrated around this manifestation. There are several such forms of encephalitis, they differ in the severity of the course of the disease, and also in their effect on the nervous system:

• Feverish form. The disease is mild. There is fever, weakness and nausea. Neurological abnormalities are absent or mild. A fairly rapid and full recovery is occurring.
• The meningic form. It occurs most often in patients with tick-borne encephalitis. Characterized by severe headaches, nausea, sometimes vomiting. Patients report photophobia and pain in the eyes. Neck muscle tone is increased, in this area, stiffness is felt. This form can take place both with an increase in body temperature, and without it.
• Meningoencephalitic form. Illnesses it only 15% (up to 40% in the Far Eastern type of encephalitis). This is a more severe course of the disease. Characteristic hallucinations, lack of orientation in space, delirium. Epileptic seizures are common.
• Poliomyelitis form. Occurs in a third of the patients. The condition is characterized by the gradual numbness of any limb, flaccid paresis of the cervical spine. Atrophies of various extremities can be combined and have a sluggish pyramidal character. Complete atrophy of the muscles of the affected limbs occurs by the third week.
• Polyradiculoneuric form. Her peripheral nervous system is affected. Paralysis can be ascending.

Another type of disease, different from the above, is a two-wave type. The disease has all the most pronounced symptoms: fever, sleep disturbance, headache, aches and pain in the limbs. Its distinctive feature is a fever that flows into two waves. The first is easier, lasts a maximum of a week. Further - the period of normalization of body temperature. It lasts about two weeks. Next is the second fever wave. It is heavier than the first: on a background of a fever pathologies of nervous system are revealed. However, this is followed by a full recovery.

Treatment

If the diagnosis "tick-borne encephalitis" is diagnosed, the treatment goes in several directions:

1. Elimination of the underlying cause of the disease. Carried out medication. Gamma globulin, immunoglobulin and polyglobulin are prescribed. Improvement of the patient's condition is observed after 24 hours.
2. Antiviral therapy. Enzyme preparations (ribonuclease) and interferon preparations are prescribed.
3. Reduction of intoxication. A large amount of liquid is injected into the body (with the help of droppers and with direct use).
4. Bed rest for the patient is mandatory and affects the positive dynamics of the disease.
5. Dietary nutrition is important for violations of the gastrointestinal tract. It is desirable to use vitamins of group B and C.

The condition of a person after tick-borne encephalitis, transferred by him, depends on the severity of the course of the disease. Also affects the extent of lesions of the nervous system.

How to protect yourself from illness?

The most effective means by which you can protect yourself from the disease and its severe consequences is to get vaccinated against tick-borne encephalitis. However, it is not always possible to take care of this in advance, especially for urban residents who do not have horticultural plots and do not go into the forest. What must be done to avoid becoming a victim of a tick?

Carefully choose clothes in which you go to the forest. It should be light colors (mite will be easier to notice), from smooth materials (the mite will not be able to climb over you and fall). Dress so that access to the body is blocked (sleeves with cuffs, trousers tucked into socks, a jacket with a hood or a cap). Use a repellent with repellent ticks action. Handle not only clothes, but also the body. In the forest, walk in the center of the pathways, do not go into the bushes and tall grass: these are the favorite places of ticks.

Every 20 minutes, inspect clothing and body for mites. Pay special attention to the auricles, armpits and inguinal zone. If an insect is found, it is by no means possible to put pressure on the insect. Encephalitis can be transmitted even through cracks on the fingers.

Boil milk before eating.

Rules of vaccination

The simplest and most effective way to protect yourself is vaccination against tick-borne encephalitis. It is especially shown to people living in dangerous areas and spending considerable time in the forest or in the garden.

It should be noted that vaccination against encephalitis is carried out in 3 stages. The vaccine itself can be either domestic or imported. Most importantly, it must have permission to use. Currently, you can be offered home-produced vaccines, as well as German or Austrian. Encephalitis after vaccination does not appear in 95% of cases. But if you still get into the remaining 5%, then the course of the illness will not be difficult.

Before you get vaccinated against encephalitis, you need to consider several things:

• Protection from the disease come only two weeks after the second inoculation (a total of 21 days after the start of vaccination).
• To achieve the strongest protection, it is recommended that a third vaccination be given a year later.
• Before starting the vaccination, it is necessary to consult a therapist.
• It is possible to vaccinate against tick-borne encephalitis for children from one year or older. However, doctors recommend carefully weighing all the risks and, if there is no urgent need, begin to vaccinate the child from 2-3 years.
• An increase in body temperature after administration of the vaccine is allowed.
• Revaccination should be carried out every 3 years.
• There were no negative effects of the vaccine on pregnant and lactating women. But if there is a possibility, it is better to abstain from vaccination.

Important! Having vaccinated against encephalitis, bites of ticks all the same need to be feared. After all, these insects carry other dangerous diseases, from which vaccination is not provided (for example, borreliosis).

If the tick was bitten

If protective measures have not been helped and the tick has still bitten, it is necessary to do the following steps:

• Carefully remove the tick. It is important that he remains alive.
• Place the insect in a glass vessel and take it to an infectious laboratory in your city.
• 10 days after the bite, it is necessary to take a blood test for the fact of the disease.

Knowledge of what encephalitis is and how to protect yourself from it is a guarantee of your health, and perhaps of life.