Tick-borne encephalitis increasing in Sweden, 2011

Å Lundkvist; A Wallensten; S Vene; M Hjertqvist

doi:10.2807/ese.16.39.19981-en

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Tick-borne encephalitis increasing in Sweden, 2011
Å Lundkvist^1,2,3 , A Wallensten^1,3 , S Vene¹ , M Hjertqvist¹
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Affiliations: ¹ Swedish Institute for Communicable Disease Control, Solna, Sweden ² Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden ³ Uppsala University, Uppsala, Sweden

Correspondence:
Å Lundkvist
ake.lundkvist smi.se
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Citation style for this article: Lundkvist Å, Wallensten A, Vene S, Hjertqvist M. Tick-borne encephalitis increasing in Sweden, 2011. Euro Surveill. 2011;16(39):pii=19981. https://doi.org/10.2807/ese.16.39.19981-en Received: 26 Sept 2011

Abstract

Until August, 161 cases of tick-borne encephalitis (TBE) were recorded in Sweden for 2011, leading to an incidence of 1.7 per 100,000 population. Fifty to 59 year-olds (24%) were most affected, 55% of the cases were males. An increase in TBE in Sweden has occurred in the last decade and might be explained by enlarged tick populations, more contact between TBE virus infected ticks and man, and also by growing awareness of the disease. Climatic conditions may have contributed to the increase.