A child who suddenly cannot stand or walk should be checked head-to-toe for an attached tick, especially in the scalp behind the ears, before any other workup. Tick paralysis from a hidden Dermacentor can mimic Guillain-Barre syndrome - and resolves within a day of removing the tick, before serious diagnostic delays accumulate.
Tick paralysis is caused by a neurotoxin in the saliva of feeding female Dermacentor or other tick species, not by any infection. Symptoms…
Questing hard ticks always climb upward when they catch a host. After they latch onto a pant leg they crawl steadily up until they reach…
Mailing a removed tick to a lab for pathogen testing is useful for community surveillance but should not drive treatment decisions. CDC…
Folk wisdom holds that ticks fall out of trees onto people - this is wrong. Ticks cannot jump, fly, or drop from height; they quest on…
Hard ticks find hosts by questing: climbing onto grass blades or low vegetation, anchoring with the back legs, and waving the front legs…
An unattached tick can crawl on a person for hours before biting. CDC's two-hour shower rule is based on field studies showing that…