Abstract
The clinical features of bites by the Australian scrub tick, Ixodes holocyclus, are reviewed. Eight cases of tick bite are summarized, including six new cases of tick paralysis in children. In almost all cases neuroparalysis became worse transiently, after the tick had been removed. One child with life-threatening respiratory and bulbar palsy received canine antitick antivenene, with rapid reversal of clinical signs. The differential diagnosis of tick bite includes all acute childhood diseases which can affect the motor units; the importance of including the possibility of tick envenomation in the differential diagnosis of acute weakness or paralysis in children is illustrated. The clinical features of neuromuscular paralysis are described, together with a review of the tick's local effects at the bite site.
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