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<P>The leftover head can cause nasty health problems for the host, = Please use caution in following the recommendation in the article. If all you are interested in is getting rid of the tick, then the traditional smothering procedure will work. It runs out of air and withdraws. There are, however some issues that should be kept in mind. If you do that(use vaseline etc) , then that encourages the tick to empty at least part of its gut contents back into the wound. This can cause sepsis, and if there is a pathogen present, other complications. So if there is a health question, removal should still be by steady pulling of the tick with tweezers or an extractor (as recommended by the NS Dept of Health). Andrew A. Hebda Nova Scotia Museum >>> "Elizabeth Doull" <edoull@ns.sympatico.ca> 7/8/2008 12:09 pm >>> Tick talk Experts argue smothering versus pulling By BEVERLEY WARE South Shore Bureau Chronicle Herald Tue. Jul 8, 2008 An expert on parasites says the proper way to remove a tick is to coat it with some substance that inhibits its breathing, causing it to pull out of the skin on its own. (Fotolia) The province is giving out wrong information on how to get ticks off your body, says a Halifax-based parasitologist. The Department of Health Protection and Promotion puts out a brochure that says to grasp the tick with tweezers and gently pull it straight out. Edith Angelopoulos cringed when she read that piece of advice. "You cannot pull them out," she said. The only way to get them off is to cut off their air supply. Ms. Angelopoulos taught parasitology at Dalhousie University for 30 years. She said ticks have a proboscis that digs into the skin so that it can attach itself. The tick also has spines pointed back from its body and its head has little pumps that pump an anti-coagulant into its host. "You start to pull it out and you can't pull it out because of the spines, so its head usually breaks off. Its head stays in and keeps contracting, pumping that anti-coagulant." The leftover head can cause nasty health problems for the host, including tumours, growths and infections, she said. The host's body may react to the foreign body and build a defence around it. "I saw a person who had a tumour removed one year after the tick had been pulled out." There is only one proper way to get rid of a tick. "You need to stop it from getting air. You find a tick and all you need to do is to cover the area thoroughly with a greasy substance like butter or lard or Vaseline." That plugs the holes through which the tick breathes, it contracts the tiny spines and you can easily pull the tick off. Once the tick's head has broken off, Ms. Angelopoulos said the only way to remove it is with microsurgery. Health promotion spokesman Brett Loney said the province stands by the advice it is giving out. "We've told people to pull them off with tweezers. That's what we've always told people to do," and he said that's based on advice from the medical community, the medical health officer, Department of Natural Resources insect specialists and the Public Health Agency of Canada. The agency's national microbiology lab in Winnipeg tests the ticks for Lyme disease. Robbin Lindsay is the agency's specialist in ticks and Lyme disease. He is away and could not be reached for comment Monday but he did give a media interview last week. Agency spokeswoman Jana Lerner said he said "use tweezers to carefully grasp the tick as close to the skin as possible and pull slowly upward, avoiding twisting or crushing the tick." He also said not to smother the tick, she said. "Absolutely wrong," Ms. Angelopoulpos said. "I stand by what I said." She said the only other alternative to applying a greasy substance is to wait until the tick has had its fill of blood, and it will simply drop off, but she said that could take some time. Ticks first came to Nova Scotia in the 1940s, Ms. Angelopoulos said, when a farmer imported sheep into Yarmouth. By the 1980s, ticks were discovered in Kejimkujik National Park. Today, they are across the province. "And the biggest carriers are dogs." Marni Gent's two dogs have Lyme disease. They contracted it near their home in Garden Lots. Ms. Gent put banners up on Canada Day on the old schoolhouse she and her husband own proclaiming the tiny community just outside Lunenburg as ground zero for Lyme disease. Five of the 12 confirmed cases of Lyme disease in Nova Scotia are in Garden Lots. The banners were vandalized overnight July 1 and Ms. Gent thinks it's because someone was upset by the use of the term "ground zero". She put the signs back up but discovered Saturday morning that someone had spray-painted obscene images over them. RCMP Cpl. Rob Lewis said police are investigating the vandalism. Ms. Gent said she is disturbed someone would deface the banners. She said she will change "ground zero" to "hot spot" and repair the rest of the banner with green and white paint. The sign is staying, and she hopes the attention given to the vandalism won't detract from her true concern - the prevalence of Lyme disease-carrying ticks in her community. ( bware@herald.ca)
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