Ticks and Travelers

 

Prof. Dr. Michael Kunze

“TBE/FSME vaccination is recommended within Europe for all people residing in or travelling to endemic areas”.

(Prof. Dr. Michael Kunze, Chairman, ISW; Munich 2006)

General statement

Tick-borne encephalitis (TBE) is a preventable disease, which is rapidly becoming a growing public health problem in Europe and other parts of the world. So far no causal treatment is known but a very efficient and well-tolerated vaccination is available for protection against the disease.

At least 10.000 cases of TBE are referred to hospitals each year, yet the incidence of TBE is so far not fully recognized. The reason for this is that TBE produces clinical features similar to those of many other types of meningitis and/or encephalitis.

Until recently TBE was believed to be a rather limited problem in a few well-defined endemic areas; however, this notion has now been revised. In addition, the increasing mobility of people exacerbates the risk of infection.

In order to provide an effective contribution to public health in general and, in specific, to encourage the control of TBE, an international effort has now been launched, with the aim to alleviate this situation. As a first step towards this objective, renowned international experts on TBE have created a new body:

International Scientific Working group on Tick-Borne Encephalitis (ISW-TBE)

The working group is comprised of internationally recognized scientific experts from endemic countries with extensive personal expertise in the field of TBE and a high level of commitment to improving the regional knowledge of and response to the issue TBE.