Tick-borne encephalitis in Slovenia (1953-2013): the 60th anniversary

Abstract

Introduction: In the year 2013, we are celebrating the 60th anniversary of the isolation of the tick-borne encephalitis virus (TBE) in Slovenia. Ever since its isolation, Slovenian infectologists, epidemiologists, virologists and other experts have been researching this disease.

Methods: For this anniversary, we have historiographically analysed all qualified articles from this period and prepared a retrospective study of the appearance of the disease in Slovenia.

Results: In certain parts of Slovenia, in the years following the Second World War, there was an increased presence of previously unknown diseases of the central nervous system. In 1953, Milko Bedjanic, Slava Rus and Jelka Vesenjak Zmijanac isolated a virus in the blood and thereby proved that the disease was indeed TBE. In the years that followed, virologists studied the cause of TBE, many epidemiologists researched its epidemic characteristics, entomologists and ornithologists studied the ecosystems of arboviral infections and infectologists studied the clinical and laboratory features of infections and the course of the disease as well as its possible consequences. Microbiologists perfected the technique of diagnosing this infection. They developed a vaccine and selected the groups that were legally obliged to be vaccinated.

Conclusion: the disease has stabilised as an endemic type of TBE that clinicians can control, but the common effort of epidemiologists and the public health service directed towards vaccinating people against this disease has not been very successful and the disease is still too common.