Discussion: Tic Borne Encephalitis Vaccine

https://www.cdc.gov/tick-borne-encephalitis/vaccin...

I just found out that the CDC has approved TBE Vaccine in the US. This has been used for 20 years in Europe. CDC states U.S. travelers visiting parts of Europe and Asia where TBE is found who might participate in outdoor activities with risk of tick exposure should talk to their healthcare provider about vaccination. I thought it might be worth mentioning to folks thinking of travelling for WMOC or Oringen this year (among other events).

I am all vaccined out.

Yay, thanks for this heads-up!!

The full course of three doses is spread out over at least 5 months. But the first two could be as close together as two weeks.

Great info - thank you!

That’s great news!!!

We got our first dose in Sweden in 2020, but then travel shut down and we never got back for the 2nd dose....I asked at my HMO and they knew nothing about it, but I assume it will eventually become available.
We have never encountered any ticks in Europe, so the danger is quite rare (but still worth getting vaccinated).

There are ticks in certain parts of Sweden - more on the east coast than the inland - but they are not abundant.
Certain other countries in Europe have more and for travel to Hungary or Czech Republic it is recommended to be vaccinated.
At the training camp the week before WOC in 2008 (Czech Republic) the members of the US Team often found between 10-20 ticks on them after each training.

It depends where you are.

The Stockholm archipelago certainly has ticks in the summer. My mother-in-law even found one in the winter!

On my long summer runs I’d often pick up one or two (typically finding them before they attach; part of my loop goes through a field which I think is the worst culprit). Once my husband and I must have stepped in a nest in long grass while getting out a sailing boat from winter storage, as suddenly we each had 20+ crawling on our legs.

That said…the Stockholm archipelago is also one of the most beautiful places in the world and we have family there. So, I’m glad there is a TBE vaccine and I can’t wait for a Lyme (Borelia) vaccine. In the meantime, daily tick checks are part of our routine. And water sports :)

This explains why I never got any ticks in Europe. Never been to Czech or Hungary, and have only done one hour run on an island in the archipelago, which is as lovely as Zan says.

I've been to Hungary three times and Sweden twice (once in the north and once in the south) and don't recall collecting any ticks. I'll hopefully be in Sweden again in July.

If you're there Ricky, I don't want to miss meeting you.

Plan is to do Kainuu O Week in Finland (the organisers have neatly spaced the four foot and four MTBO events across the six days so you can do all of them) followed by WMTBOC and finishing with O Ringen. Not sure how logistics work doing foot and MTBO at O Ringen but I'm hopeful of doing some foot events this time since I only did MTBO last time and felt I missed the massive carnival experience.

This year the MTBO and foot events are supposed to share finishing arenas, I believe, which should help.

An update, the vaccine is unavailable at Atrius health, with no idea from them when or where it will be available.

Anybody know if TBE is present in Serbia (ARDF World Champs). Since it’s not far from Hungary, I’d assume probably yes?

I’ve raced in Czech Republic, south of Prague, but did not find any ticks at that event.

This vaccine (Ticovac) was approved back in August, I think, but as of February of this year, my healthcare provider here in Indiana was unable to find out if one can actually get the vaccine anywhere in the U.S. yet. Not sure what's taking so long. Would be great if anyone could confirm that it's actually being made available here in the U.S.

For anyone going to Oringen this year, I'd recommend getting the TBE vaccine if you can, even if the risk is low (no more than 200-300 cases of TBE reported in all of Sweden every year).

2017-2021 TBE map of Finland
https://www.thl.fi/ttr/gen/atlas/html/atlas.html?s...

Living in Austria an doing orienteering since 2004 all over Europe, I can tell you I got tick bites in nearly every country... Even in Greece last year!! Home in Austria I for sure had thousands of it, not even counting the ticks I remove from my body and clothes after being out. I seem to be their favourite food ;-)
Of course I am vaccinated against TBE since early childhood and also refresh every 5 years or so. Lyme disease is what I fear much more as there is no vaccine available, but every check I did was negative - but I know many others who got it!

TBE is where I got some of my bikes from.