Bogdanavičienė et al.
A retrospective analysis of tick-borne encephalitis in children treated in Kaunas Hospital 2012 to 2019
Pediatr Infect Dis J. 2022;41(9):702-705. doi:10.1097/INF.0000000000003595
Lithuania is one of the European countries with the highest incidence of TBE. In general, TBE in children is usually less severe compared to adults. In a retrospective study, medical records were analyzed of all TBE cases in children aged between 1 to 17 years who were hospitalized in the Kaunas Hospital of the Lithuanian University of Health Sciences between January 2012 and December 2019.
In total, 87 children participated in this study. Only half of the patients (50.6%) reported a tick bite and some individuals (6.9%) reported having drunk unpasteurized milk.
A biphasic course of illness was observed in 70.1% of the children. All children suffered from headache and fever. 93.1% of the patients had meningeal signs and focal neurologic signs were seen in 93.1%. A variety of symptoms among the 87 patients have been analyzed in detail and were listed in the publication. Isolated meningitis was diagnosed in 57.5% of cases, meningoencephalitis in 41.4% and meningoencephalomyelitis in 1.1 % of all cases. The severity of disease correlated with age.
About half of the children had continuing neurologic symptoms upon discharge, most commonly tremors of the tongue, eyelids and fingers, and headache, balance, and coordination disorders were documented. The clinical characteristics of TBE in children in Lithuania were similar to those described in other countries.