What are the clinical features of a tick bite?

While tick bites can be painful, in many cases they can go unnoticed. Once the tick is full from its blood meal it falls off the skin.

Ticks can be categorized as either hard or soft ticks and this distinction determines some of the clinical features of the tick bite. Hard ticks feed for a few days to several weeks, while soft ticks feed quickly and leave their host rapidly.

Ticks cause acute and chronic skin diseases through physical trauma, salivary secretions, toxins, excretions, body parts, or by causing a host to scratch. Skin disease may occur away from the site of the bite, and tick bites can also cause disease in other parts of the body such as ‘flu-like symptoms, vomiting, paralysis and even anaphylaxis.

By: DermNet

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