What are the symptoms? How to prevent it?

Leeches, commonly known as leeches, cylindrical bodies with slightly flat black-green links, hermaphrodites are cold-blooded animals, mainly living in reservoirs, ditches, paddy fields and lakes in fresh water, most in ponds rich in organic matter or rivers without pollution. It mainly feeds on the blood of animals or people. What if you get bitten by a leech outdoors? How to reduce the damage caused by leeches to us?

Shape characteristics

The length of the body is slightly flat, and at first glance it looks like a cylinder, with a length of about 2 cm and a width of about 2 mm. The back is green with black, there are five yellow vertical lines, the ventral side is flat, grayish green, living in rice fields, ditches, shallow water pollution pits, etc., addicted to human and animal blood, very agile, can swim in waves, can also make ruler-like migration.

Harm

1. Leeches mostly feed on the blood of people, animals and other animals, and are widely distributed in the paddy and rice fields of our country. When leeches suck blood, they first cut the skin with the teeth on their jaws, and then suck the blood into the body with the help of the suction of the muscular pharynx.

2. The leech salivary glands can secrete anticoagulant hirudin that prevents blood coagulation and histamine-like substances that dilate blood vessels, causing wound bleeding, and easy to be infected by bacteria, causing ulceration, so efforts should be made to prevent it.

What are the symptoms of a leech bite?

Leeches will not drill into the skin, but people will not feel pain or itching at the initial stage of the bite, but they will not feel pain until the leeches leave or remove the leeches after sucking blood. A triangular wound can be seen on the local skin and the blood flow does not stop. Erythema or wind masses may appear around the wound, blisters and necrosis may occur in severe cases, and systemic reactions or shock may occur in individual cases. Smaller leeches can sometimes drill into the vagina to cause vaginal bleeding, or invade the urethra to cause urine pain or hematuria. Swimming or washing your face in the pond, leeches can also drill into the nasal cavity, causing intermittent nasal congestion, epistaxis, nasal pain, runny nose or nasal crawling. Leeches bites are more common in the calves, dorsum of feet and immersed parts.

Emergency treatment of leeches bites

Do not pull the leeches attached to the skin, otherwise the sucker will be tighter and tighter. Once the leeches are pulled off, their suckers will stay in the wound and can easily cause infection or fester.

You can gently pat around the bite area of the leeches to make the leeches release the sucker and fall by themselves due to vibration. You can also use tobacco oil, salt, strong vinegar, alcohol, chili powder, lime and other drops on the worm body, so that it loosens the sucker to fall.

If the leeches fall behind, if the wound does not stop bleeding, use gauze to press the wound for 1-2 minutes to stop the bleeding, then wash the wound with 5% sodium bicarbonate solution, apply iodine tincture or methyl purple solution, and then bandage it with sterilized gauze. If the bleeding does not stop, you can sprinkle some Yunnan Baiyao or hemostatic powder on the wound.

If the leeches fall behind and there is no bleeding, you can squeeze out the dirty blood from the wound, rinse with baking soda or water, and then smear iodine tincture, alcohol or red medicine for disinfection.

If the leeches drill into the nasal cavity, honey can be dropped into the nose to make it fall off. This method does not work, you can use a basin of water, hold your breath to soak the nostrils into the water, constantly stir the water in the basin, you can lure the leeches out of the nasal cavity.

If the leeches invade the anus, vagina or urethra, carefully examine the parts where the leeches are attached, and then drop vinegar, honey and anesthetics (such as 1% cocaine and 2% lidocaine) on the insect. After the worm is retracted, take it out with tweezers.

Preventive measures of desmodium

If leeches are found in the river pond, blood clots and trichlorfon can be mixed into the water or around the rice field to induce the leeches to swallow or absorb, which can be killed quickly.

When working in paddy fields, you can wear long boots to avoid the bite of leeches in shallow water. When working or traveling in the subtropical jungle, wear long clothes and trousers and fasten the neckline, cuffs and trouser legs to prevent desmodium from creeping in.

Because leeches have medical value, their secreted hirudin and histamine have the effects of anticoagulation and vasodilation, and desmodium is a good traditional Chinese medicine, which has the effects of treating stroke, hypertension, clearing blood stasis, amenorrhea, falling injury and so on. It can be cultured artificially. However, in breeding, attention should be paid to the living environment of the leeches and the damage of the leeches themselves to the human body, so as to avoid being bitten by the diseased leeches to cause human disease.