Dobler Gerhard, Euringer Kathrin, Kaier Klaus, Borde Johannes P
Bundeswehr Institute of Microbiology, Neuherbergstraße 11, 80937 München, Germany.
Parasitology Unit, University of Hohenheim, Emil-Wolff-Straße 34, 70599 Stuttgart, Germany.
Vaccines (Basel). 2023 Feb 23;11(3):522. doi: 10.3390/vaccines11030522.
Tick-borne encephalitis (TBE) is the most significant tick-borne disease in Europe and Asia, with more than 10,000 cases per year worldwide. A surge of reported TBE cases can be observed despite the availability of highly efficient vaccines. There is little known about the serological immune protection rate of the population in Germany. The seroprotection rate is defined as the presence of neutralizing antibodies. In contrast, the vaccination rate, as defined by public health agencies, may differ from the true protection rate in a population.
2220 blood samples from inhabitants of the county Ortenaukreis in the Federal State of Baden-Württemberg in Germany were included in the study. These were tested for anti-TBEV IgG antibodies by an anti-TBEV-IgG-ELISA. Subsequently, all TBEV-IgG positive samples were confirmed for neutralizing antibodies in the micro serum neutralization assay.
From the overall 2220 samples, 2104 were included in the comparison because of the selection of specific age groups (ages 20-69). In our sample size, we found an average serological protection rate (presence of neutralizing antibodies) of 57% (518/908) for the female blood donors and of 52% (632/1196) for the male blood donors.
In this study, we present new findings on a highly endemic region in southern Germany. Additionally, we present current data regarding the serological TBEV protection rates in the Ortenaukreis in southern Germany and compare these with a dataset published by the RKI, which is based on vaccination reports of the primary care providers and health care insurers, and with a self-reporting study conducted by a vaccine manufacturer. Our results significantly exceed the official numbers of average active vaccination status by 23.2% for females and by 21% for males. This might indicate an even longer persistence of TBE-vaccination-induced antibody titers than previously assumed.
蜱传脑炎（TBE）是欧洲和亚洲最重要的蜱传疾病，全球每年有超过10000例病例。尽管有高效疫苗可用，但仍可观察到报告的TBE病例激增。关于德国人群的血清学免疫保护率知之甚少。血清保护率定义为中和抗体的存在。相比之下，公共卫生机构定义的疫苗接种率可能与人群中的实际保护率不同。
本研究纳入了德国巴登-符腾堡州奥滕瑙县居民的2220份血样。通过抗TBEV-IgG-ELISA检测这些样本中的抗TBEV IgG抗体。随后，在微量血清中和试验中对所有TBEV-IgG阳性样本进行中和抗体确认。
由于选择了特定年龄组（20 - 69岁），在总共2220个样本中，有2104个样本纳入比较。在我们的样本量中，我们发现女性献血者的平均血清学保护率（中和抗体存在）为57%（518/908），男性献血者为52%（632/1196）。
在本研究中，我们展示了德国南部一个高度流行地区的新发现。此外，我们展示了德国南部奥滕瑙县TBEV血清学保护率的当前数据，并将这些数据与德国疾病控制与预防中心（RKI）发布的数据集进行比较，该数据集基于初级保健提供者和医疗保险公司的疫苗接种报告，还与一家疫苗制造商进行的自我报告研究进行比较。我们的结果显示，女性的平均有效疫苗接种状态显著超过官方数字23.2%，男性超过21%。这可能表明TBE疫苗接种诱导的抗体滴度持续时间比以前假设的更长。
