Abstract
With an annual incidence between 8 and 15 per 100,000 population in the period from 2009 to 2013, Slovenia has one of the highest notified incidences of tick-borne encephalitis (TBE) in Europe. TBE vaccination coverage remains at about 7.3%. To inform vaccination policy, we used surveillance data from 2009 to 2013 to calculate the overall and age- and sex-specific mean annual TBE incidence. We estimated disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) with 95% uncertainty intervals (UI), using the Burden of Communicable Diseases in Europe approach from the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control. The mean annual incidence was 11.6 per 100,000 population, peaking in older age groups (50–74 years: 18.5/100,000) while relatively lower among children (5–14 years: 10.2/100,000). We estimated an overall 10.95 DALYs per 100,000 population per year (95% UI: 10.25-11.65). In contrast to the TBE incidence, the disease burden in children aged 5–14 years was higher than in adults aged 50–74 years: 17.31 (95% UI: 14.58–20.08) and 11.58 (95% UI: 10.25–12.91) DALYs per 100,000 stratum-specific population, respectively. In a limited resource setting where prioritisation of TBE vaccination strategies is required, vaccination programmes targeting children may have a higher impact on disease burden.
Highlights
Tick-borne encephalitis (TBE) is a vector-borne disease caused by the TBE virus [1]
From 2009 to 2013, a total of 1,190 cases (58% males) of TBE in their meningoencephalitic phase were notified in Slovenia, with a mean of 238 cases/year
Each case of TBE accounted for an average of 0.23 disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) (95% uncertainty intervals (UI): 0.22–0.24) In the Table, DALYs and their components (YLL and YLD) are presented for all health outcomes related to TBE
Summary
Tick-borne encephalitis (TBE) is a vector-borne disease caused by the TBE virus [1]. It typically presents as a two-phased illness [2,3,4]. The first phase is associated with symptoms such as fever, fatigue, headache, myalgia and nausea. The second phase involves the nervous system with symptoms related to meningitis and/or encephalitis. Life-long sequelae can have an important impact on the quality of life of those affected [5]. TBE cases notified in Europe have surged in the last three decades with an estimated increase of 193% [6,7,8]
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