Costs
If you decide to have an TBE vaccination, it depends on your health insurance company and your place of residence whether the costs for the vaccination will be covered. Nearly all health insurance companies pay for the vaccination if the place of residence is in a designated TBE risk area. In addition, some health insurance companies cover the costs if a trip to a risk area is imminent.
For further details, the doctor should be consulted in advance and the responsible health insurance company should be contacted in order to clarify the amount of the costs and their possible coverage. The costs for a TBE vaccination amount to about 3 times 40€ per patient. A basic immunization therefore costs just under 120€ per person plus the cost of the vaccination itself – should the health insurance company not cover the vaccination.
However, the cost of an TBE vaccination depends on the vaccine and possible costs at the doctor who carries out the vaccination. For this reason, additional costs can be added. On average, one should therefore be prepared for a price of about 60 Euros for each individual vaccination appointment.
The costs of the TBE vaccination are not covered by all health insurance companies. For example, it depends on whether the health insurance company classifies the TBE vaccination as a protective vaccination or not. If it is classified as a protective vaccination, the costs of all people living in a TBE risk area or who are counted as a risk group by their profession are covered.
Some health insurance companies also cover the costs of the TBE vaccination regardless of these factors. Another possible criterion is the TBE vaccination as a travel vaccination before a stay in a risk area abroad. If you are unsure, you should contact your health insurance company before the vaccination.
The vaccination recommendations for children differ, at least in the German-speaking countries. While Switzerland recommends TBE vaccination for children from the age of six, Austria recommends vaccination from the age of two. In Germany there is no clear regulation, but a recommendation of the RKI, which advises to be cautious with vaccinations at pre-school age.
In children of this age the side effects of the vaccination outweigh the actual benefits. In addition, TBE infections in children are much milder than in adults. In the last 20 years or so, no severe course of TBE infection has been observed in children and adolescents under the age of 16.
Irrespective of this, vaccines are available for children and babies from the first year of life. The most common is Encepur-Kinder, which is approved for children from the first to the 11th year of life. For children and adolescents from the age of 12, the adult vaccine is used.
For the vaccination of children the same safety instructions apply as for adults. TBE vaccination should not be administered immediately after an infection has occurred. There must be a gap of at least two weeks between the last illness and the last vaccination.
Especially in small children, fever is more frequent after the first vaccination, but after the second vaccination it is less pronounced or no longer occurs. The children’s vaccine contains a lower dose of the TBE vaccine and thus 0.25 instead of 0.5 ml. A vaccination against meningitis is the safest prophylaxis to prevent TBE-induced meningitis in children.
TBE vaccination during pregnancy has not been investigated for the Encepur vaccine. Therefore, any vaccination should be checked carefully and only carried out in urgent cases. It is not necessary to keep a time interval to other vaccinations, so that the Encepur vaccination can be administered in parallel to other vaccinations.
It is also possible to have a TBE vaccination administered during the breastfeeding period. In general, however, the indication, i.e. the reason for the vaccination, must be considered carefully both during breastfeeding and during pregnancy. The indication can be, for example, frequent walking in areas close to forests.
Vaccination against TBE during the breastfeeding period is possible because the vaccine is an inactivated virus. This means that it does not trigger a pronounced reaction of the immune system in the body.
