Recovery occurs over hours with complete resolution of symptoms within days. Once tick-borne paralysis is suspected it is a simple matter of finding and removing the tick. Ticks as Vectors Ticks act as reservoirs or amplifiers for microorganisms. In the amplifier system, the reservoir is a vertebrate such as a mouse or deer and a tick transmits or amplifies the disease. The organism responsible for Lyme disease has many hosts and relies on the tick for transmission.
Humans are incidental or dead end hosts for the microorganism.
In the reservoir system the microorganism is passed from one generation to the next. The pathogen depends only on the tick for survival. The organism causing Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever needs only the tick population to sustain the life cycle. It is not clear which ticks can transmit which diseases. The dog tick has also been shown to harbor the organism responsible for Lyme disease.