The tick Ixodes ricinus can transmit the TBE-virus to people. Credit: Tove Hoffman, Uppsala UniversityA new study performed by Uppsala University and the University Hospital in Uppsala exposes that the actual variety of infections brought on by the tick-borne TBE virus is significantly greater than previously approximated. This study, which analyzed Swedish blood donors, has actually been published in the journal Eurosurveillance, associated with the EUs Centre for Disease Prevention and Control.” We were very stunned that such a high percentage of the blood donors revealed traces of a previous TBE virus infection. This is far more than might have been thought based upon the variety of reported cases,” says Bo Albinsson, doctoral trainee at Uppsala University, among the first authors of the article.Åke Lundkvist, Professor at Zoonosis Science Center (ZSC), Department of Medical Biochemistry and Microbiology, Uppsala University. Credit: Åke Lundkvist, Professor at Zoonosis Science Center (ZSC), Department of Medical Biochemistry and Microbiology, Uppsala UniversityRising Concerns Over TBETick-borne encephalitis (TBE) is a very serious illness that is progressively common in large parts of Europe. According to data from the general public Health Agency of Sweden, 597 cases of the illness had actually been reported in Sweden by November 2023, the greatest number ever registered in a single year. TBE has actually been a notifiable illness considering that 2004 under the Communicable Diseases Act and all cases should for that reason be reported to the regional infection control doctor and the Public Health Agency of Sweden. Individuals who just develop moderate signs or no signs at all are not identified by the health services and for that reason do not reveal up in the statistics. Previously, the relationship in between the variety of reported cases and the proportion of individuals infected was unknown.Traditional methods of investigating whether somebody has actually formerly been contaminated by the virus are not entirely reputable as individuals who have actually been vaccinated against TBE can also test positive. On top of this, it is not understood precisely the number of individuals have been vaccinated, since Sweden has no national vaccination register for TBE.Innovative Study and MethodologyIn the new study, the result of a Swedish cooperation, the scientists have examined blood tests from 2,700 confidential blood donors from 9 regions in Sweden. The approach they used is called TBE-SMIA (suspension multiplex immunoassay) and was developed at the Zoonosis Science Center (ZSC) at Uppsala University in cooperation with the Clinical Microbiology Department at Uppsala University Hospital. It makes it possible for the very first time to effectively identify the antibody reaction after TBE virus infection from the action after TBE vaccination. This has actually enabled the scientists to recognize the number of individuals have actually had the infection. They were also able to approximate the proportion of the population in each area that is vaccinated.The results showed that the percentage of blood donors with a history of TBE virus infection varied from 1 percent to 7 percent between the various areas. Based on the population sizes of the regions, the researchers estimated that this represents a total of more than 160,000 individuals aged 15– 65, which is considerably higher than previous estimates.The researchers likewise discovered that the proportion of blood donors vaccinated against TBE differed in between 8.7 percent and 57 percent in the different regions. In total, this equates to over 1.6 million Swedes (aged 15– 65) in the areas investigated.” It is noteworthy that the number of verified TBE cases is increasing despite fairly great vaccination coverage. Further research is for that reason required, for instance by thoroughly mapping the circulation of the infection in various tick populations. Our results provide a crucial background for future vaccination methods and we think it would be well worth thinking about establishing a national vaccination register for TBE,” says Tove Hoffman, a researcher at the ZSC and the studys other first author.Reference: “Seroprevalence of tick-borne sleeping sickness infection and vaccination coverage of tick-borne encephalitis, Sweden, 2018 to 2019″ by Bo Albinsson, Tove Hoffman, Linda Kolstad, Tomas Bergström, Gordana Bogdanovic, Anna Heydecke, Mirja Hägg, Torbjörn Kjerstadius, Ylva Lindroth, Annika Petersson, Marie Stenberg, Sirkka Vene, Patrik Ellström, Bengt Rönnberg and Åke Lundkvist, 11 January 2024, Eurosurveillance.DOI: 10.2807/ 1560-7917. ES.2024.29.2.2300221 The research study was moneyed by the Horizon 2020 Framework Programme and the SciLifeLab (Pandemic Laboratory Preparedness)..
Credit: Tove Hoffman, Uppsala UniversityA brand-new study carried out by Uppsala University and the University Hospital in Uppsala exposes that the real number of infections caused by the tick-borne TBE infection is substantially higher than formerly estimated. Credit: Åke Lundkvist, Professor at Zoonosis Science Center (ZSC), Department of Medical Biochemistry and Microbiology, Uppsala UniversityRising Concerns Over TBETick-borne encephalitis (TBE) is an extremely major illness that is increasingly common in large parts of Europe. It makes it possible for the very first time to efficiently differentiate the antibody reaction after TBE virus infection from the reaction after TBE vaccination. Our results provide an essential background for future vaccination techniques and we believe it would be well worth thinking about establishing a nationwide vaccination register for TBE,” says Tove Hoffman, a scientist at the ZSC and the research studys other very first author.Reference: “Seroprevalence of tick-borne encephalitis infection and vaccination coverage of tick-borne encephalitis, Sweden, 2018 to 2019” by Bo Albinsson, Tove Hoffman, Linda Kolstad, Tomas Bergström, Gordana Bogdanovic, Anna Heydecke, Mirja Hägg, Torbjörn Kjerstadius, Ylva Lindroth, Annika Petersson, Marie Stenberg, Sirkka Vene, Patrik Ellström, Bengt Rönnberg and Åke Lundkvist, 11 January 2024, Eurosurveillance.DOI: 10.2807/ 1560-7917.