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In Europe, the main distributor of tick-borne encephalitis and Lyme disease is the European forest mite, which is widespread throughout Lithuania.
Almost 40 years ago, the transmission path of Lyme disease and the prevalence of the disease in the Northern Hemisphere have led to further research on the diversity and geographic distribution of tick species and the pathogens that are spread. Research is paying off and we are learning more and more about tick-borne diseases.
Recently, news has spread in the media about a new species of ticks found in Lithuania, which is warm and therefore widespread in southern Europe. Country studies with multi-year observations show that this species represents a very small proportion of the total tick population and is not an effective distributor of tick-borne encephalitis.
Photo of medical partner / entomologist, doctor of biomedical sciences Milda Žygutienė
The diversity of tick species does not affect the diversity of the tick-borne encephalitis virus. There are three known subtypes of the tick-borne encephalitis virus: European, Siberian, and the Far East. These three different subtypes of the tick-borne encephalitis virus can be transmitted by ixodic mites, also known as European forest ticks. There is a vaccine available in Lithuania, which is mostly vaccinated by the population of our country, which encourages the human body to produce antibodies that neutralize tick-borne encephalitis viruses (thus forming immunity). Antibodies produced by the vaccine are effective against all three tick-borne encephalitis virus subtypes and protect against tick-borne encephalitis regardless of the tick-borne encephalitis virus subtype infested by Europe, Siberia, or the Far East.
This article is sponsored by Pfizer.
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