Infectious Disease decision-support tools and Alert systems (IDAlert)

Climate change is one of several drivers of recurrent outbreaks and geographical range expansion of zoonotic infectious diseases in Europe. Policy and decision-makers need tailored monitoring of climate-induced disease risk, and decision-support tools for timely early warning and impact assessment for proactive preparedness and timely responses. To be able to meet this challenge, a holistic perspective is required. The EU-project IDAlert has a clear focus on the link between animals, humans and the environment, with the goal of jointly achieving a more up-to-date and effective preparedness in Europe.

One of the goals of the project is to increase preparedness for new tick-borne infections. In Sweden, we have developed a tool, Report Tick Tool, which is used to monitor and provide early warning signals – if we find a new tick species, there is also a risk that it may carries new infectious agents. Exotic tick species, such as Hyalomma marginatum and Dermacentor reticulatus, which are found sporadically in Sweden, contribute to an increased risk that animals and humans can be infected by tick-borne pathogens that do not currently occur in the country.

Reporting Tick Tool was launched in 2023 and aims for citizens in Sweden to actively report tick findings. During the first year, 20,000 tick findings were reported, which contributed to valuable information about both endemic and exotic tick species. In 2024 a new tick species, Dermacentor marginatus, was discovered for the first time in Sweden. This demonstrates that the surveillance system can function as an early warning for new tick species and to promptly identify exotic tick species which can carry infectious agents that are not currently present in the country.

Feedback on results to the public during ongoing collection is an important part of maintaining activity and contributing to public education in the field. Continuous data collection and development of the tool will help achieve more robust and comprehensive insights, enhancing the reliability and validity of the findings over time.