A Dunblane pensioner has warned of the dangers of tick bites after spending several days in hospital due to a bite from the blood-sucking insect.
Ian Stein’s left leg became very red more than a week after he had removed the deer tick from the back of his left knee.
He was later treated for the bacterial skin infection cellulitis, likely caused by the parasite.
Ticks can also transmit Lyme Disease which causes flu-like symptoms and chronic fatigue.
After contacting NHS 24, the 77-year-old, of Ochlochy Park, was taken to Forth Valley Royal Hospital in an ambulance and put on a drip.
He said this week: “I was very surprised. I have been bitten by ticks before and removed them with a tick lifter, but nothing like this has happened before.
“After removing it I doused it in TCP and thought no more of it.
“However, more than a week later my knee became very painful where I was bitten. Things deteriorated rapidly. It swelled up and got very hot.
“Before going to hospital I attended at Stirling Community Hospital where I got tablets for Lyme Disease, but within half an hour of taking a pill at home I was getting shakes.
“At that stage I called NHS24 and when an ambulance came I was persuaded to go to Larbert. I was tested and it read for sepsis and put on a drip straight away. If I hadn’t gone to hospital that evening I don’t like to think what would’ve happened.”
Mr Stein said his brother Alistair had contracted Lyme Disease in the 1980s from a deer tick bite.
He added: “This was an era when the danger of ticks was not fully appreciated. It had serious consequences for him because he had these flu-like symptoms which completely knocked him for six.”
Mr Stein thinks he picked up the tick in the garden of the family home in Argyll which is regularly visited by roe deer.
The tick – which had managed to latch on to the back of his knee despite him being covered in socks and trousers – was “absolutely tiny.”
He said: “I’d like to thank all those who were alert to the situation and encouraged me to attend hospital without delay – the nurses, whom I consulted through NHS 24, and the ambulance crew from Stirling. The assessment which I underwent at Larbert was exemplary and my treatment immediate and effective. I wish to thank the staff there for that. The lesson the public should learn is to remain alert to the possibility of trouble, even some days or weeks after being bitten. Don’t delay in seeking treatment if suffering an unusual reaction. I consider myself lucky.”
Research released last month points to Lyme Disease diagnosis in the UK reaching 8,000 in 2019, compared with previous estimates of between 2,000 and 3,000 annual diagnoses.
The research in the BMJ Open Journal showed that Scotland had the highest number of cases at 27 per cent of the total.
According to researchers, the rise in diagnosis is in part down to increased caution by GPs and greater public awareness.
