Prevalence of anti-tick-borne encephalitis virus (TBEV) antibodies in Swiss blood donors in 2014-2015.

Ackermann-Gäumann, Rahel; Eyer, Claudia; Vock, Michael; Gowland, Peter; Tinguely, Caroline; Leib, Stephen L; Bori, Mauro; Buser, Andreas; Fontana, Stefano; Thierbach, Jutta; Weingand, Tina; Niederhauser, Christoph (2023). Prevalence of anti-tick-borne encephalitis virus (TBEV) antibodies in Swiss blood donors in 2014-2015. Blood transfusion, 21(2), pp. 100-109. SIMTI Servizi Srl 10.2450/2022.0099-22

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BACKGROUND

Disease morbidity of tick-borne encephalitis (TBE) has been increasing over the last decades. Since the 1990s, however, no extensive seroprevalence studies on TBE in humans have been performed in Switzerland. Here we assessed the prevalence of anti-TBE virus (TBEV) antibodies among different groups of the Swiss blood donor population.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

The study was carried out from July 2014 to January 2015. Blood donors participating in the study (n=9,328) were asked to fill in a questionnaire relating to vaccination against or infection with different flaviviruses, and blood samples were collected. All samples were screened for the presence of anti-TBEV IgG antibodies using ELISA testing. Seropositivity rates in different groups of blood donors were compared using Chi square tests with Bonferroni correction.

RESULTS

In 2014 and 2015, 24.6% of healthy Swiss blood donors indicated vaccination against TBE. Among vaccinated blood donors, antibody prevalence was significantly higher in younger (<40y: 85.3%) than older individuals (≥40 to <55y: 80.0%, ≥55y: 76.7%; p=0.005). In non-vaccinated individuals, antibody prevalence was significantly higher in younger (<40y: 10.0%) than older (≥40 to <55y: 4.0%, ≥55y: 3.9%; p<0.005), male (6.8%) than female (3.7%, p<0.0001), and blood donors from endemic (7.0%) than border (6.2%) or non-endemic regions (4.2%, p<0.001). Possible asymptomatic infection, as defined by positive IgG ELISA results in blood donors indicating no vaccination against TBEV, was found in 5.6%.

DISCUSSION

Our data importantly complement the knowledge on TBEV vaccination rates and estimate the frequency of subclinical TBE in Switzerland.

Item Type:

Journal Article (Original Article)

Division/Institute:

04 Faculty of Medicine > Service Sector > Institute for Infectious Diseases > Research
04 Faculty of Medicine > Service Sector > Institute for Infectious Diseases
08 Faculty of Science > Department of Mathematics and Statistics > Institute of Mathematical Statistics and Actuarial Science

UniBE Contributor:

Vock, Michael, Leib, Stephen, Niederhauser-Lüthi, Christoph Peter

Subjects:

600 Technology > 610 Medicine & health
500 Science > 570 Life sciences; biology
300 Social sciences, sociology & anthropology > 360 Social problems & social services
500 Science > 510 Mathematics

ISSN:

1723-2007

Publisher:

SIMTI Servizi Srl

Language:

English

Submitter:

Pubmed Import

Date Deposited:

16 Aug 2022 16:39

Last Modified:

18 Mar 2023 00:11

Publisher DOI:

10.2450/2022.0099-22

PubMed ID:

35969138

BORIS DOI:

10.48350/172040

URI:

https://boris.unibe.ch/id/eprint/172040

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