Shortage of vaccine against Kumlinge disease halts ”Tick Bus”

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The vaccine against the tick-borne meningoencephalitis known as Kumlinge disease has run out in Finland as well as in Central Europe.
      According to the National Public Health Institute, they still have enough vaccine in stock to carry out the cost-free vaccine programme in Åland, which was started last year. However, following the shortage of vaccine, some people will have to wait for a booster injection for some time.
     
Many residents in the Greater Helsinki area are annoyed about the situation, as their vaccine programme was discontinued after the first injection. They bought their vaccine from the mobile ”Tick Bus” run by the medical reception centre Saaristolääkärit in the current spring.
      In order to get full protection against the disease, the vaccine has to be injected three times. The second injection can be given in two weeks to three months from the first one, while the third injection will be given after a year.
      On their website, Saaristolääkärit regrets "the changes in the schedule due to the shortage of vaccine".
      Following the short and mild winter, the tick season in Europe is longer, having caused the demand for the vaccine to soar, notes Camilla Sjöström, the spokesperson for Saaristolääkärit.
     
Saaristolääkärit is cooperating with the global medical products company Baxter, which is the largest importer of this vaccine to Finland.
      Sales of the vaccine have increased by 75 per cent during the current year, while the increase in Sweden has been 60 per cent.
      Doctors' surgeries have been advised to prioritize so that a booster injection would be administered to those already vaccinated, Sjöström reports.
      The production of the vaccine takes 11 months, and a new batch of vaccine should be available in September at the latest, according to Sjöström.
     
Another Finnish importer, Meda Oy, which is one of the leading specialty pharma companies in Europe, has also sold out its stock of this vaccine. On Friday the company will get a thousand children’s dosages from a German pharmaceutical company, but even they have been sold ahead in advance.
     
Researcher Tuija Leino from the National Public Health Institute believes that the risk of Kumlinge disease is very small for those who only spend holidays in Åland. Apart from Åland, other risk regions include the archipelagoes of Turku and Kokkola, Helsinki’s island of Isosaari, and the region between Lake Saimaa and the eastern border.
      Not so many observations have been made elsewhere, notes researcher Olli Vapalahti from the University of Helsinki.
      An unusually long summer alone does not explain the increase in the tick-borne meningoencephalitis, as a dry summer could kill the ticks. In order to spread, the virus needs a certain amount of moisture, a quick spring, and a lot of hungry ticks who attach themselves to the skin of a host. Most of the cases have been recorded in August, Vapalahti reports.
     
In the wake of recent climate change, the occurrence of Kumlinge disease or TBE has increased almost exponentially in the Baltic States over the last 15 years, and hence its rise is feared also in Finland, notes Vapalahti.


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Finland out of vaccine against dangerous Kumlinge disease spread by ticks (15.5.2007)

Links:
  National Public Health Institute

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