From childhood to golden age: increased mobility – increased risk of contracting tick-borne encephalitis?

摘要

For the 11th time, the International Scientific Working Group on Tick-Borne Encephalitis (ISW-TBE) held its annual meeting in January 2009 to review the latest issues in the field of TBE. The cause of preventing TBE has recently also been taken up by the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC), as the TBE virus is endemic in regions of 27 European countries. Between 1974 and 2003, morbidity increased by 400%. From 2004 to 2006, another considerable increase was seen in some countries, notably the Czech Republic, Germany, Poland, Slovenia, and Switzerland. Between 1990 and 2007, 157,584 cases of TBE were documented in 19 countries providing reliable data, resulting in a mean of 8755 cases per year (Europe excluding Russia 50,486 cases, with a mean of 2805 cases annually). In view of the variability of the pattern of epidemiological change throughout Europe, a single cause for the increase in TBE, such as temperature increase, appears unlikely. Human behaviour, driven by a wide variety of factors, seems to be crucially important.