www.tick-victims.info

Tick-borne encephalitis (TBE) is a preventable disease, which has rapidly become a growing public health problem in Europe and other parts of the world.  So far no causal treatment is known, but a very efficient and well-tolerated vaccination is available for protection against the disease.

The International Patient Information Board on Tick-Borne Encephalitis = TBE (or FSME in German, standing for Frühsommer-Meningoencephalitis) was founded in April 2006 in a combined effort by the members of the International Scientific Working Group on TBE (www.isw-tbe.info), building on the success of the Austrian TBE patient advocacy group (www.zecken.or.at).

The association was established in order to carry along the Austrian success story fighting TBE/FSME into all the other European countries similarly affected. This ensues primarily through active, targeted educational work, so as to both prevent as many new cases of TBE/FSME as possible in Europe over the years to come, and to inform those afflicted about opportunities for the therapy and rehabilitation for physical, cognitive and mood-related deficits.

Drawn up as a challenge to public institutions and to those responsible for policy in the individual countries has been a pan-European 10-point-action-plan (=catalogue of demand), which is first being introduced in the course of the official launch of this patients’ platform during a press conference in Vienna on April 25th, 2006, and which is intended to raise awareness of TBE/FSME as still being one of the great health policy challenges of the 21st Century.