What Tick-borne Encephalitis May Look Like: Clinical Signs and Symptoms

Tick-borne encephalitis is a zoonosis, endemic in a vast area of Europe and Asia. Clinical spectrum of the disease ranges from mild meningitis to severe meningoencephalitis with or without paralysis. Rare clinical manifestations are an abortive form of the disease and a chronic progressive form. A post-encephalitic syndrome, causing long-lasting morbidity that often affects the quality of life and sometimes also forces the individual to a change in lifestyle, develops in 35-58% of patients after acute tick-borne encephalitis. Clinical course and outcome vary by subtype of tick-borne encephalitis virus causing infection. Severity of the disease increases with the age of patients. The risk of incomplete recovery is higher for patients who have more severe clinical illness during acute stage of tick-borne encephalitis.