Reliable surveillance of tick-borne encephalitis in European countries is necessary to improve the quality of vaccine recommendations

Authors

Paweł Stefanoff, Aleksandra Polkowska, Cristina Giambi, Daniel Levy-Bruhl, Darina O’Flanagan, Luca Dematte, Pierluigi Lopalco, Jolita Mereckiene, Kari Johansen, Fortunato D’Ancona; VENICE project gatekeepers, contact persons group.

Reference

Reliable surveillance of tick-borne encephalitis in European countries is necessary to improve the quality of vaccine recommendations. Vaccine 2011; 29: 1283-8.

This article reviews how European countries monitor and recommend vaccination against tick‑borne encephalitis (TBE), an emerging public health concern in Central and Northern Europe. It highlights substantial differences between countries in defining risk areas, conducting surveillance, and issuing vaccination advice, largely due to the limited use of standardized methods. As a result, vaccination recommendations and coverage vary widely. The article concludes that harmonizing surveillance systems and risk definitions would improve vaccination strategies, particularly for travellers, and allow better evaluation of their impact.

This overview was prepared within the VENICE‑2 project, which collected information on vaccination policies across the European Union for the European Centre for Disease Control. I was a member of the VENICE‑2 steering group and was responsible for organizing the survey, drawing on my experience in the surveillance and research of tick‑borne diseases. Together with Aleksandra from my team, I coordinated the data collection, carried out the analyses, and prepared the manuscript.