Report Confirms Four Austrians Suffer Tick-borne Encephalitis from Cheese

Medical experts confirmed on Thursday that four people recently fell ill with tick-borne encephalitis (TBE) in western Austria after eating homemade goats' cheese.

A shepherd in western Vorarlberg province, who had checked into hospital in July with flu-like symptoms, was found to have the illness following a blood test.

What You Should Know about Japanese Encephalitis - Types, Causes, Symptoms, Diagnosis & Treatment
Japanese encephalitis is a mosquito borne viral disease associated with inflammation of the brain.

But the man said he had noticed no tick bites, the usual method of transmission, two experts from the Institute of Virology at Vienna Medical University wrote in an article published Thursday.

Doctors finally traced the cause of the illness to the cheese, which the shepherd had made from unpasteurised goat's and cow's milk on an isolated pasture at over 1,560-metre (5,120-feet) altitude.

Three other members of his family, who had not been on the pasture, also exhibited flu-like symptoms and headaches.

Another EEE case confirmed in Massachusets Boy
Massachusets third human case of eastern equine encephalitis this year has been confirmed in a nine-year-old Middleborough boy.

Further tests found that one of the goats, whose milk had been used to make the cheese, as well as other animals who had eaten leftovers, had developed TBE anti-bodies, meaning they had also been infected.

Texas Girl With Rare Brain Disease Has Surgery
Jessie Hall, who is suffering from a rare brain disorder called Rasmussen's Encephalitis, has had half her brain removed in a surgery at the Cook's Children's Medical Center.

Ticks were believed until now to be found only below 1,350-metre altitude, but this may have changed due to global warming, the experts said.

Cases of TBE infections via dairy products were reported in recent years almost exclusively in Baltic countries.

Source-AFP
RAS/M

Encephalitis Kills 6 in Western Bangladesh
Six people have died from encephalitis disease in western Bangladesh's Kushtia district in the last three days