Vaccination programme for tick-borne expanded

The vaccination programme for tick-borne encephalitis will be expanded this year to Kustavi, where the prevalence of the disease has increased every year during the last five years of monitoring, said the Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare-(THL) in a press release.

The vaccination programme has also been expanding to Lohja, where the southwestern bank of the Lake Lohjanjärvi was brought under the programme last year. This year, new parts of the Lohja Archipelago Area will be brought under it, said the release.

In addition, free TBE vaccinations will continue to be given in Åland, Pargas and Simo, southern parts of Kemi, the Kotka Archipelago, and the Sammonlahti district of Lappeenranta, as well as on the Island of Preiskari, close to Raahe.

‘TBE vaccines are only necessary in risk areas. It is good to remember that the vaccine does not protect against ticks or prevent the ticks from sticking to the skin. The most common disease spread by ticks is borreliosis. There is no vaccine against borreliosis. The traditional daily check for ticks is necessary in areas where ticks occur, especially in order to prevent borreliosis infections,’ said THL Chief Physician Tuija Leino.

Tick-borne encephalitis is a disease caused by the TBE virus, which spreads through tick bites. In 2019, a total of 69 cases of tick-borne encephalitis were recorded in the National Infectious Diseases Register. The number of reported cases has decreased slightly in the last two years. A total of 79 cases were recorded in the register in 2018 and 82 in 2017.

According to the monitoring data for 2015–2019, the calculated incidence of tick-borne encephalitis was, as in previous years, highest in the Municipality of Pargas (53 cases per 100,000 inhabitants). In 2019, Pargas reported nine cases of tick-borne encephalitis. Other high incidence areas were Simo (42 /100,000), Kustavi (30/100,000) and Åland (28/100,000). Around four-fifths of all municipalities did not have any TBE cases between 2015 and 2019.

“In addition to monitoring by municipality, THL closely monitors summer cottage areas, for example, where the precise population is difficult to determine and where the incidence rate does not give a reliable picture of the local risk. Vaccination recommendations for the demarcated risk areas are always considered on a case-by-case basis,” said THL Researcher Sari Huusko.