A 5-year-old girl in Mississippi was paralyzed for over a day from a tick bite, an unusual case highlighting the importance of protecting against insects as peak biting season begins.
The young girl’s ordeal was first documented on Facebook by her mother, who wanted to warn other parents of checking their children for tick bites.
“We had a bit of a scare this morning! Kailyn woke up and couldn’t walk!” Jessica Griffin, the mother, wrote on Facebook, while sharing photos of the rather large tick sealed in a plastic bag, a red bite mark on her daughter’s scalp and the young girl laying in a hospital bed.
The post was shared over 450,000 times, with over 118,000 reactions and more than 100 comments.
“I was just thinking that her legs were asleep until I noticed that she couldn’t hardly talk!” she wrote. “After tons of blood work and a CT of the head UMMC [University of Mississippi Medical Center] has ruled it as tick paralysis! PLEASE for the love of god check your kids for ticks!”
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention highlight tick paralysis as a rare disease caused by a toxin in the saliva of ticks, particularly the Rocky Mountain wood tick and the American dog tick, typically found in the Rocky Mountain states and the northeast U.S., respectively.
In 2006, four cases of tick paralysis occurred near each other and within a short period in Colorado, where the state usually receives about one case per year, according to the CDC.
Because the toxin also causes some neurological symptoms, it can be confused with Guillain-Barré syndrome or botulism. Removing the tick usually provides symptom relief within 24 hours, though if the tick isn’t removed, paralysis can spread to the respiratory system and can be fatal.
In early May, the CDC warned of rising populations of ticks and mosquitoes that public works and pest control services were wholly unprepared to address.
The CDC is urging the public to take precautions in the summer months when in areas known for high rates of ticks, fleas or mosquito bites. Wearing protective clothing treated with insect repellent, particularly Permethrin, was shown to protect against tick bites.
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