Climate Warming and Tick-borne Encephalitis, Slovakia

Abstract

Increased tick-borne encephalitis (TBE) cases have been reported in central Europe. To investigate temporal trends in the altitude at which TBE cases occur in Slovakia, we analyzed the number of TBE cases during 1961–2004. Since 1980, TBE cases moved from lowlands to submountainous areas, most likely because of rising temperature.

Keywords

• Tick-borne encephalitis
• climate warming
• central Europe
• Slovakia
• vector-borne infections
• viruses