Photo Credit: Smileus
The following is a summary of “Tick-borne encephalitis clinical characteristics in adult patients: A 10-year retrospective study in Stockholm, Sweden,” published in the September 2024 issue of Infectious Disease by Bartholdsson et al.
Tick-borne encephalitis (TBE) cases have risen extensively in Europe over the past few decades.
Researchers conducted a retrospective study to assess patients’ clinical characteristics and outcomes with TBE in Region Stockholm, a high-risk area in Sweden.
They identified TBE cases during 2006-2015 using the regional Department of Communicable Disease Control and Prevention notification database and retrieved clinical data from the included patients’ medical records. The associations of specific variables with predefined outcomes of disease severity were evaluated using multivariate logistic regression models.
The results showed that from 1,004 identified TBE cases, 703 adult patients were included, 61% were men, and the median age was 50 years (range 18-94), with a non-vaccinated majority. Comorbidity was present in 34%, and 4% had immunomodulatory therapy, 75% were hospitalized, and 11% had severe disease. More than 70% of the 79 patients followed up for more than 6 months had persisting symptoms. The case fatality rate was 1.4%, with 15% in the group with immunomodulatory treatment. In the multivariate analysis, severe disease was linked with underlying comorbidities, age ≥50 years, and previous complete TBE vaccination.
They concluded that findings of a more severe disease course in specific patient groups emphasize the need for optimized prevention and follow-up care, especially for those with immunomodulatory therapy.
Source: academic.oup.com/jid/advance-article/doi/10.1093/infdis/jiae463/7774034
