Experts warn before the start of the holiday season that anyone who goes on holiday in Italy, Slovenia or Croatia cannot be safe from TBE-transmitting ticks there either.
In neighboring Slovenia, the TBE incidence is one of the highest in the EU. The figures for the past few decades have been between 62 and 531 cases per year. The virus occurs practically across the country. In Croatia only about 20 cases are reported each year, but overall there is relatively little data. Italy is generally considered to be a low-incidence area, but there is still a risk of contracting TBE – especially in the north-east of the country, in wooded and mountainous areas. As in Austria, the number of cases rose sharply in Italy in 2020.
Risk all over Austria great
“In Austria itself, we are still particularly badly affected by TBE, the whole country is considered an endemic area,” says Primary Rainer Gattringer, Head of Infectious Diseases and Tropical Medicine at the Wels-Grieskirchen Clinic. And the most effective protection is a vaccination. “Unlike other infectious diseases, we cannot contain TBE by vaccinating as many people as possible. Due to the way ticks are transmitted, there is only the possibility of individual vaccination protection. The virus remains present in any case.”
Anyone who is not vaccinated and is infected with TBE has to reckon with everything – similar to COVID-19 – from an asymptomatic to an extremely severe course of the disease. “Fortunately, the majority of those infected experience few or no symptoms,” said Rainer Gattringer.
The remainder – estimates assume five to 30 percent – usually lead to a two-phase course of the disease, in which the first symptoms appear after about a week. During this phase, patients often have a fever and flu-like symptoms. After the disease has subsided and for another week without symptoms, a second peak of the illness can occur, in which the fever returns and neurological symptoms occur. “Headache and neck pain, nausea, impaired consciousness and seizures are typical,” explains the infectiologist.
In very serious cases, the brain and meninges become inflamed. “All in all, to this day we can only treat the disease symptomatically,” says Gattringer. “So it is better to protect yourself right from the start with a vaccination.” And that’s also because about a third of the patients suffer from long-term sequelae after suffering from illness.
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