Published Date: 2002-03-16 23:50:00
Subject: PRO/AH/EDR> Tick-borne encephalitis - Germany (south)
Archive Number: 20020316.3758
TICK-BORNE ENCEPHALITIS - GERMANY (SOUTH)
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See Also
2001---
Tick-borne encephalitis - Sweden: climate change 20010707.1317
Tick-borne disease - UK: increased risk (02) 20010703.1272
Tick-borne disease - UK: increased risk 20010701.1259
Tick-borne encephalitis - Russia (Karelia & Siberia) 20010523.0999
Tick-borne encephalitis - Czech Republic (02) 20010326.0611
Tick-borne encephalitis - Czech Republic 20010324.0585
Tick-borne encephalitis - Sweden: background 20010318.0550
Tick-borne encephalitis - Sweden: 2000 20010317.0543
1996
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Tick-borne encephalitis - Slovakia 19960802.1374
Tick-borne encephalitis (2) 19960402.0607
Tick-borne encephalitis: RFI 19960330.0584
Date: Sat 16 Mar 2002
From: ProMED-mail <promed@promedmail.org>
Source: Reuter eLine, Fri 15 Mar 2002 [edited
<http://www.reutershealth.com/frame2/eline.html>
Tick-borne illness increasing throughout Germany
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BERLIN: A potentially fatal tick-borne disease may be far more widespread
in Germany than previously thought, public health authorities are warning.
Early summer meningoencephalitis kills 2 per cent of those who are
infected. It can also trigger long term complications such as concentration
problems or paralysis in up to 40 per cent of cases. Until now, vaccination
programmes and public awareness campaigns have generally been limited to
southern parts of the German states of Baden-Wurttemberg and Bavaria in
wooded areas towards the Alps.
But now Baden-Wurttemberg state's Infectious Diseases Office is
recommending that decisions on whether to vaccinate against tick-borne
encephalitis (TBE) virus no longer be limited by geography. The
recommendation is based on a study by the state Health Ministry, which
showed that the virus was more widespread within the state than previously
believed. Professor Peter Kimmig, from the Ministry's Infectious Diseases
Section, said the new picture of TBE [prevalence came from looking for the
presence of antibodies rather than reports of the disease itself. "We took
around 5000 forest workers, people who come into contact most with the tick
vector. Of those, around 3000 had already been vaccinated, so we had about
2000 to work with," he told Reuters Health. Their results revealed that the
virus is found throughout Baden-Wurttemberg.
Researchers had thought that the geographical reach of the virus was
limited to southern Germany and other countries to the north and east
including Estonia and Lithuania, where it is a serious problem. But Kimmig
said that the virus was probably present across Germany, but that it had
not been found because no one was looking. "It's a problem in our country
that such checks on mosquitoes and ticks are hardly ever conducted," he
said. "There is a big gap in our knowledge and information. If a country is
supposedly free of something, no one looks for it."
Other tests conducted by the Robert Koch Institut in Berlin included
testing the ticks for the virus, and Kimmig said more are infected than
before. "We thought it was about one in 1000 which carried the virus. Now
we have figures of up to one in 20 or so in some areas," Kimmig stated.
"One hypothesis to explain this is the effects of global warming, which has
led to an increase in the populations of rodents. These form an infectious
cycle with the ticks which are themselves more populous by factors of up to
10," he added.
Early summer meningoencephalitis first produces flu-like symptoms, which
disappear after a few days. But shortly after that around 10 per cent of
patients develop meningitis, an inflammation of the membranes surrounding
the brain. If this spreads to the spinal cord, it can result in permanent
paralysis.
(byline: Hannah Cleaver)
--
ProMED-mail
<premed@promedmailo.org>
[Tick-borne encephalitis is caused by two related but biologically distinct
flaviviruses. The Eastern subtype causes the more severe disease, Russian
spring-summer encephalitis, with mortalities up to 25 per cent in some
outbreaks. This subtype is present throughout the former Soviet Union and
Central Asia. The Western subtype causes less severe disease and is present
throughout western, southern and central Europe; mortalities rarely reach 5
per cent. The two subtypes are transmitted by different tick vectors; the
vector associated with transmission of tick-borne encephalitis in Germany
is _Ixodes ricinus_. The proposal to extend vaccination to other regions of
Germany on the basis of an antibody survey of limited scope, rather than on
incidence of disease, will present a problem for administrators. The
availability of an effective vaccine has to balanced against the likelihood
of individuals encountering virus-infected ticks outside forested areas. -
Mod.CP
.................cp/sh
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