Public health response to tick-borne diseases

A report has been published by the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) investigating the public health response to two emergencies involving tick-borne diseases, specifically looking at the involvement of communities.

The report found that the affected and at-risk communities can be a key resource for the public health sector when preparing for and responding to public health emergencies related to infectious diseases.

The case studies were: 

• two cases of autochthonous infection with Crimean-Congo haemorrhagic fever (CCHF) in the autonomous community of Castilla y León in Spain in 2016 (technical report)
• the first two endemic cases of tick-borne encephalitis (TBE) in the Netherlands, which appeared in 2016 in the Utrecht and Twente regions (technical report)

The technical reports describe the engagement and role of communities during the pre-incident, incident and post-incident phases of the two outbreaks. They identify a number of good practices, which other EU member states could apply.

Source: ECDC, 23 August 2018

Guidance on CCHF and TBE for Scottish travellers to endemic regions is available from the TRAVAX (for health professionals) and fitfortravel (for the general public) websites.