Detail

Keywords

Arboviruses; Encephalitis, Tick-Borne; Epidemiology; Flaviviridae

Research group(s)

• Research Group Aberle J
  Head: Judith Aberle
  Research Area: Our group studies the molecular mechanisms of protective immunity with a special emphasis on virus-specific antibodies and T cell responses that play a well-established role in both viral clearance and prevention of viral disease. A particular focus closely linked to other research areas of the Center of Virology, is on virus diagnostics and the epidemiology of TBE in Austria.
  Members:
  Simon Raffl

Research interests

I am a senior scientist specializing in tick-borne encephalitis (TBE) and TBE surveillance in Austria. My work includes the epidemiological monitoring of TBE infections and the severity of their clinical course, as well as conducting field effectiveness studies to assess the real-world impact of TBE vaccination programs. More broadly, I am interested in the ecology, epidemiology, and public health implications of arboviruses (arthropod-borne viruses). A key focus is understanding how socio-economic, climatic or man-made environmental changes may influence the distribution and transmission dynamics of arboviral diseases in Europe and beyond.

Techniques, methods & infrastructure

To monitor TBE activity in Austria, standardized questionnaires are used to collect demographic and geographical information for each confirmed TBE case. These questionnaires also capture data on the clinical course of disease and the patient’s vaccination status. The collected data are used to calculate incidence rates and assess the disease burden among both vaccinated and unvaccinated individuals. Probable infection sites are visualized through geographical mapping. Additional variables under investigation include seasonality, gender and age distribution, route of infection, and case-fatality rate.

Selected publications

1. Gervais, A. et al. (2024) ‘Autoantibodies neutralizing type I IFNs underlie severe tick-borne encephalitis in ∼10% of patients’, Journal of Experimental Medicine, 221(10). Available at: https://doi.org/10.1084/jem.20240637.
2. Stiasny, K.; Raffl, S.; Aberle, S.W.; Aberle, J.H. (2024) 'TBE in Austria', The TBE Book, 7th ed., Singapore: Global Health Press, p. 182-6. Available at: https://tbenews.com/tbe/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/The-TBE-Book_7th-Edition.pd.