Credit ECDC
# 6561
The CDC lists a number of diseases carried by ticks in the United States, but the most well known are probably Anaplasmosis, Babesiosis , Ehrlichiosis, Lyme disease, and Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever (RMSF).
Last month, we learned of a new Phlebovirus Discovered In Missouri, although it isn’t known how widespread it is.
But tickborne diseases are hardly exclusive to North America. In Europe, parts of the former Soviet Union and Asia, a serious (sometimes fatal) illness called TBE or Tick Borne Encephalitis is carried – and transmitted to thousands of humans each year – by the Ixodedes tick.
Credit CDC Ixodedes (tick species)
The ECDC today has released an epidemiological survey of TBE in the EU and EFTA covering the years 2000-2010. This 59 page technical report contains data gleaned from multiple sources, and gives us a better idea of just how widespread, and pervasive, TBE is across much of Europe.
Technical reports - 18 Sep 2012
Available as PDF in the following languages:
This document is free of charge.
ABSTRACT
The report summarises existing information on the occurrence of TBE to obtain a better understanding of the current magnitude of TBE in the European Union (EU) and European Free Trade Association (EFTA) countries. The specific objectives are to characterise the different reporting systems for TBE in EU/EFTA countries; to identify and assess the current epidemiological situation for TBE; identify key risk areas for the disease and provide ECDC with data into its study on burden of disease. The report is a first effort to collect existing data on TBE in EU/EFTA countries. The data, covering the period 2000–2010, were collected from different sources.
A brief passage from the technical document illustrates the severity of the problem, and the increasing risk from the disease.
Every year, the TBE virus causes thousands of cases of neuroinvasive illness in humans across Europe and Asia and is becoming a growing public health concern in Europe and other parts of the world.
In recent decades, the number of human TBE cases in endemic regions of Europe has increased, endemic areas have spread northwards and to higher altitudes and new foci have emerged. TBE has also become an international public health problem due to increasing mobility and increased travel to endemic areas [4-6].
Possible reasons for the increasing reported incidence of TBE and its spread to new areas are global change, including climate and socio-economic change, modification to habitat structure and wildlife community composition resulting in an increasing abundance of deer, greater public awareness and improved reporting and diagnosis [4, 6–8].
When you consider the wide panoply of tickborne diseases found around the world, it just makes sense to do what you can to avoid exposure.
For earlier blogs on other tickborne diseases, you may wish to revisit:
New Phlebovirus Discovered In Missouri
tick . . . tick . . . tick . . .
NEJM: Emergence Of A New Bacterial Cause Of Ehrlichiosis
