Modern Means of Personal Protection of People from Bloodsucking Arthropods

Abstract

The review focuses on the means of personal protection of people from blood-sucking arthropods, mainly from Ixodidae ticks. Individual (personal) protection of humans is an important component of nonspecific prevention of natural-focal vector-borne diseases. The paper considers statistical data describing the level of significance and relevance of the information about the infections transmitted by ticks, for instance, tick-borne viral encephalitis, tick-borne borreliosis etc. Presented are the characteristics of different groups of personal protection means: insectoacaricidal, repellent, and insectoacaricidal-repellent ones. Indicators of their effectiveness are assessed; their practical use, as well as the features of special protective clothing and the necessity of its application is described. The toxicity of protective clothing is reduced through a lining fabric, local inserts of fabric with insectoacaricidal impregnation and the use of underwear. Different interpretation of the term “repellent” in the domestic and foreign literature, and also two different approaches (“Eastern” and “Western”) to the design and manufacture of personal protection means for people against attacks of blood-sucking arthropods, including Ixodidae ticks, in Russia and Western Europe countries and the USA is discussed. The paper highlights the effect of different pyrethroid groups on the behavioral reactions of ticks. It is shown that in the Russian Federation the use of permethrin is prohibited for the treatment of protective clothing against blood-sucking arthropods, in particular against the taiga tick Ixodes persulcatus, which is the main vector of dangerous infections across the major part of the country (in the east of the European part, the Urals, Siberia and the Far East).