by Dr. Chip Harrington, MD
Most hunters that go to Southern Africa have been warned about malaria, yet the far more common problem is African Tick-Bite Fever. It's a bacterial infection caused - naturally - by bites from infected ticks; typically the tiny pepper tick. Patients complain of fever, headache, body aches, and a rash within 5 to 14 days after the tick bite. The rash is often a single circular red sore with a blackened center. This can actually grow into a chancre and later scar.
Your biggest risk to getting Tick-Bite Fever is, surprisingly, when you get your "hero" photo with your dead trophy. As your trophy cools in death, the ticks are looking for a "warm" host (i.e. live). Next likely is when you’re traveling back to the lodge with the trophy in the back of the truck.
When in Africa hunting, it’s very easy to want to be a manly man and jump down and help load your animals - absolutely refrain! The risk rises to the proximity of the trophy.
Don’t be tempted to lie down full body next to or onto the animal for pictures. When the animal starts to cool, ticks are going to be coming for you. Look down on the ground, and sometimes you’ll see a herd of ticks like a mob of ants, charging you.
On that happy ride back to the lodge, your trophies stacked and racked, to the extent possible, don’t touch the animal’s hide. Don’t ever rest your feet on the carcass traveling back. This is ever so common. Don’t stand in the back of the truck on the metal truck bed. It’s better to sit in the cab or the jump seat. Again, don’t help load the animal up.
What else can you do to prevent African Tick-Bite Fever? Before you go on your safari, while at home, soak your clothing in odorless permethrin. A good product, found at Target, is Sawyer Premium Insect Repellant. It “repels and kills ticks, chiggers, mites and mosquitoes.” This remains effective through six washes.
Also, a natural chemical-free insect repellent is Shoo Bug (www.shoobug.com ). Shoo bug is a tag with a magnetic strip that works off your body’s bio-energetic field. Each tag contains a specific frequency to shoo a specific bug. These tags are effective against mosquitoes, ticks, chiggers, other insects. Wear them around your neck like a tribal necklace of dog tags, with the magnetic strips facing your body. Be sure to wear these for three days before you fly to Africa to get the maximum benefit. Wear the tags continuously 24/7. They are water proof for showers and swimming, and last up to four months.
Lastly, see your doctor if you feel sick, have a fever, and think you have African Tick-Bite Fever. Tell them about your travel. If you are still in Africa, start empiric treatment with Doxycycline 100 mg. twice daily for 5 to 7 days. You should get significant improvement in 48 hours. If fever persists, enjoy a quinine tonic on ice, you've probably got malaria.