Europe’s Fight against Tick-Borne EncephalitisAustria’s successful vaccination campaign
- a good example of a public health project
Europe-wide establishment of a new TBE/FSME patients’ platform
Tuesday, April 25th, 2006 at 10:15 am
in the 1st District of Vienna
at Palais Ferstel in the “Herrensaal”, Café Central, Herrengasse 17
30 years ago, TBE vaccine came onto the market in Austria. Five years later, an exemplary anti-tick-bite vaccination campaign was called into being – with success: up to 700 cases of illness being recorded annually in the pre-vaccination era, as opposed to “only” still 100 in the year gone by. Now other European countries could gladly emulate this example, ones where a halt could be put to high numbers of people catching the disease. Thus, in 2005 there were 130 TBE cases in Sweden, over 420 in Germany and as many as 642 in the Czech Republic, meaning a huge upswing during past years.
Under the motto of
“A Gift for Europe”, the fight against TBE is now being proclaimed throughout Europe. International experts are calling for action. An initial step is being taken with a new pan-European patient platform, in order to both facilitate rapid assistance to sufferers in the future, and to reinforce awareness of the disease as well.
Prof. Michael Kunze
Chairman International Scientific Working Group on TBE (ISW-TBE)