Where to pass the tick for analysis

In the period from April to September in many regions of the country begin their active life ticks. They can be found not only in the wild in the forest or in the fields, but also in city parks, squares, and the local area. A small representative of arachnids is a carrier of many dangerous diseasesTherefore, if a parasite is found on the skin, it should be pulled out and taken to a laboratory. To do this, you need to know where to pass the tick for analysis in order to find out which virus it could infect a person.

Important!

Once a tick has been detected on the victim’s body, it must be removed. It's possible do it yourself with a thread, tweezers, syringe or special toolsold in a pharmacy, or contact a healthcare professional right away. The more the parasite is in a state of bloodsucking, the greater the likelihood of a person becoming infected with any virus.

Medical institutions

In any large city in Russia, there are medical centers for the study of the epidemiological situation in the region, which are supervised by the State Sanitary and Epidemiological Surveillance. These medical institutions have mite research laboratories for infection with dangerous viruses. In Moscow, you can seek advice on where to take the tick for analysis, you can at the Center for Hygiene and Epidemiology FBUZ, located at 4 Alekseevskaya metro station, Grafsky pereulok, building 2 (entrance from the yard, past the barrier), phone: + 7 (495) 687-40-47.

You can take parasites for analysis to the laboratory at the center, the schedule of the reception department: daily on weekdays from 9.00 to 15.30 (lunch break from 13.00 to 13.30).

Acceptance of ticks for analysis is also carried out at the Federal Center for Hygiene and Epidemiology, Federal Service for Supervision of Consumer Rights Protection and Human Welfare, located at 19A Varshavskoye Shosse, phone: +7 (495) 954-27-07, +7 (495) 954-45- 36.

Moscow medical centers are located in different administrative districts of NEAD, ZAO, CAO, SEAD, and CAO. This allows any resident of the capital to contact the institution closest to him as soon as possible. In addition to the Moscow diagnostic centers, tick research is carried out in regional institutions, such as the laboratory of the Center for Hygiene and Epidemiology in the Moscow Region in Mytishchi, the National Diagnostic Center in Shchelkovo, the Institute of Polio and Viral Encephalitis in Vnukovo and others.

Important!

The tick should be taken to the nearest medical facility for analysis no later than 2 days after parasite bite. In the early period of the virus penetration into the human body, the health consequences are not yet taking on serious proportions, so it is necessary to diagnose and begin treatment as soon as possible.

When contacting the laboratory, it is required to provide your contact information, indicate the date and place where, according to the victim, the parasite has attached itself. Information about the area where the bite occurred is very important for statistics in endemic areas of the country. These statistics have been conducted for several years throughout the country.The list of endemic zones includes federal districts and their cities, where the largest number of tick attacks infected with dangerous viruses, such as:

• tick-borne encephalitis - a viral disease that affects the human nervous system, has a destructive effect on internal organs, can lead to disability or death;
• borreliosis or Lyme disease - a dangerous infectious disease, the bacteria of which affect the internal organs of the victim, disrupt the functioning of the cardiovascular and nervous system;
• Anaplasmosis is an infectious disease caused by the Anaplasma bacterium, which, by attacking granulocyte cells, reduces the body's immunity;
• ehrlichiosis- an infectious disease caused by bacteria Ehrlichia, the activity of which disrupts the heart, kidneys, brain, lungs.

With a positive analysis, laboratory staff urgently contact the victim, who must as soon as possible come to the medical center for hospitalization and the full treatment cycle. If the study showed the absence of any viruses, the administrator, upon request, can send a printout of the results to the address of the client who contacted.

The cost of analyzing a tick for the presence of a pathogen in it in state medical institutions in Moscow is approximately the same:

• analysis of a tick for encephalitis - 500 rubles;
• research for borreliosis - 500 rubles;
• to analyze the parasite for the presence of ehrlichiosis and anaplasmosis costs 500 rubles;
• comprehensive study for four infections - 2000 rubles.

On a note!

Mites are accepted for research and some private medical centers and laboratories. Their activities are regulated by the Ministry of Health, but the cost of their services is usually overpriced. The average price for checking a tick for encephalitis and borreliosis ranges from 1000 to 2000, but may be higher. People often turn to private laboratories because they are located in a convenient place and may provide an opportunity to conduct an express analysis, which will be ready in a few hours.

Is it necessary to take an analysis only in a budget institution, to decide for patients. State research centers guarantee the availability of highly qualified specialists and reasonable prices for services. Private laboratories position themselves at a high level of service and an individual approach to everyone who applies. These factors directly affect how much it costs to check a tick for encephalitis or another dangerous disease by contacting non-governmental medical centers.

Tick ​​storage and transportation

Check the tick for encephalitis at home is impossible. And hoping that the parasite was not infected with dangerous infections is arrogant and stupid. Therefore, wait for the first disease symptoms optionally, you need to take the tick to a special laboratory, which is located in each large settlement. Passing a tick for analysis is unlikely to succeed. This procedure takes some time and is time consuming. But it will be possible to save if the examination of a tick for encephalitis or another virus is carried out in a public institution.

After the tick has been removed from the human body, it must be placed in a special test tube or any glass jar with a lid. You need to transport the parasite in this container by putting a damp cloth inside to create a favorable microclimate. If it was not possible to bring the arachnid for analysis on the first day, you need to remember how to store the tick before analysis: put the jar with the parasite in the refrigerator and store there, but not more than 2 days.

On a note!

During transportation of the parasite in hot weather, an additional task appears: how to keep the tick alive until analysis. The idea becomes feasible if ice is added to the container. As it melts, the arachnid will appear in the water, but this is fearless, since the tick tolerates such conditions perfectly.

It often happens that when a tick is pulled out of a wound at the site of a bite the head or jaw remains under the skin, and the parasite itself is torn to pieces. At such a moment, the victim wonders if it is possible to pass the dead tick for analysis. But modern diagnostics allows PCR testing of the tick even in its parts of the body. A prerequisite to be diagnosed is the preparation of the tick, that is, cleansing it of all kinds of creams, oils and other emulsions that could get on the parasite during its removal from the body. After this, the arthropod can be assigned for analysis.

Signs of disease

If for some reason it was not possible to save and check the tick for encephalitis or infection with another virus, you can wait and hope that the disease will pass by. The first signs of the disease can manifest themselves 2-3 days after a bite or only a month later. Usually, all diseases transmitted by ticks are similar to each other according to the first symptoms:

• fever;
• headache;
• nausea;
• weakness and apathy.

In such cases, the victim of a bite should seek medical help from the nearest medical facility for blood test for the presence of a virus pathogen in the blood. The study does not take much time, and in a few hours the results will be ready.

On a note!

According to statistics for 2017, the most common disease, the carrier of which is the blood-sucking arachnid, in the Moscow region is borreliosis. Of the 9 thousand parasites studied, Lyme disease accounted for almost 20%. After it follows anaplasmosis with 2.2% and ehrlichiosis with 0.4% of cases.

Tick-borne encephalitis near Moscow is rare. But in Taldom and Dmitrov regions, parasites infected with this virus can bite.

Tick ​​analysis for viruses

In order to diagnose the infection of a parasite with any virus, it is taken for a PCR study. This polymerase chain reaction method is a highly accurate type of molecular genetic diagnosis. Since the tick is examined for the presence of virus DNA, even a dead parasite or its body parts are suitable for analysis. The condition for a successful diagnosis is only that this tick was removed from a person no more than two days ago and stored under certain conditions.

If the parasite is tested positive for tick-borne encephalitis, blood is taken from the victim. How much analysis is done depends on several factors:

• in private laboratories, usually the results are reported earlier than in public;
• if the number of applicants to the medical facility exceeds the usual workload, then the result of a blood test will have to wait 2-3 days;
• If you pay for the express analysis service, the answer will be ready within a few hours.

Result encephalitis virus studies comes in the form of a list indicating the quantitative content of antibodies to this disease. The concentration of these antibodies in the blood is indicated by the term "titer". To analyze the results with the greatest accuracy, a second blood sampling is carried out after a week. If in both cases the fact of infection of a person with tick-borne encephalitis is confirmed, he is prescribed an injection of a specific immunoglobulinwhich should suppress the infection in the body. Then a complex of immunotherapy, taking antiviral drugs and antibiotics.

If a person suspects Lyme disease, in addition to venous blood donation additional studies of cerebrospinal or articular fluid are performed. This is due to the fact that the causative agents of borreliosis are concentrated not only in the blood, but also in other fluids and tissues of the victim.

If it was possible to detect the presence of the virus at an early stage of infection, there is a high probability of successful treatment of boreliosis without prejudice to human health.Recovery of the victim depends entirely on how quickly he found a tick on his body and turned to specialists for help.