Tick-borne encephalitis is a neuroinfection caused by the Tick-Borne
Encephalitis Virus. It is transmitted primarily by tick bite and rarely
because of consuming raw milk. It has been discovered in the 1930s. The
disease covers the Euro-Asia region which also known as the tick-borne
encephalitis belt. It is prevalent in most parts of Europe. The top
affected parts of Europe include Southern Germany, Switzerland, the
Czech Republic, Austria, Slovakia, Hungary, the Baltic countries,
Slovenia, Poland, parts of Scandinavia, and European Russia. Since 2000,
in Europe the total number of confirmed cases reported to the European
CDC was 51,519. There were signs of decreasing number of cases in 2014
and 2015 however after 2015 a steadily increasing number of cases with
involvement of countries which had no history of tick-borne
encephalitis. Within Europe, from 1950 to 2006 ticks were prevalent
between 600 to 2000 meters above sea level of altitude. The determinant
factors for the spread of tick-borne encephalitis are host population
size, weather, movement of hosts, altitude, and local regulations on
socio-economic dynamics of the local and travelling people around the
foci areas. The mean incidence rate of tick-borne encephalitis since
2000 to 2019 in Europe was 3.27 while the age adjusted mean incidence
rate was 2.19 per 100,000 population size. The recent increase is mainly
associated with human activity as a dominant factor since there are new
foci areas with no significant climate change. This review used several
articles and data sources from the European Center for Diseases
Prevention and Control and Polish National Public Health Institute to
examine the trend of TBE across Europe and in Poland in particular.