Four cases of tick paralysis in Colorado

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) – Over a period of 6 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 US 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.

SOURCE: Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, September 1,
2006.