PhD Defence: Alaka Lamsal

Alaka Lamsal will defend her PhD degree. The dissertation is about the prevalence and distribution of Tick-Borne Encephalitis Virus (TBEV) in Scandinavia.

14 May

Practical information

  • Date: 14 May 2024
  • Time: 10.00 - 15.00
  • Location: Bø, Room 4-311A and Zoom
  • Download calendar file

    •  Follow the PhD Defence on Zoom

    Program 

    10.00. Trial lecture: "CCHF- an emerging tick-borne threat in Scandinavia?"

    11.30. PhD Defence: "Tick-borne encephalitis virus, an emerging virus in Scandinavia"

    Evaluation comittee  

    • First examiner: Professor Per-Eric Lundgren, Linköping University, Sweden
    • Second examiner: Clinical associate professor Sigurdur Skarphedinsson, University of Southern Denmark
    • Administrator: Associate Professor Mona Sæbø, University of South-Eastern Norway

    Supervisors

    • Principal supervisor: Senior researcher Åshild Andreassen, Norwegian Institute of Public Health
    • Co-supervisors: Senior scientist Rose Vikse, Norwegian Institute of Public Health, Arnulf Soleng, The Norwegian Directorate of Health, John Petterson, Public Health Agency of Sweden, Professor Andrew Jenkins, University of South-Eastern Norway , Kristian Alfsnes, Norwegian Institute of Public Health, Professor Hans Renssen, University of South-Eastern Norway


    Head of the defence

Any questions?

Alaka Lamsal is defending her thesis for the degree philosophiae doctor (PhD) at the University of South-Eastern Norway.

The doctoral work has been carried out at the Faculty of Technology, Natural Sciences and Maritime Sciences in the program Ecology.

Bilde av Alaka LamsalEveryone is welcome to follow the trial lecture and the public defence.

 

Summary

During my PhD study, I investigated the prevalence and distribution of Tick-Borne Encephalitis Virus (TBEV) in Scandinavia.

TBEV causes the diseases Tick borne encephalitis (TBE) in humans which has been increasing in Scandinavia in recent years.

In the study’s first part, we found that TBEV infected ticks are prevalent in the Øresund-Kattegat-Skagerrak region of Norway, Sweden and Denmark.This coastal region is mostly lowland and the TBEV prevalence in multiple foci can cause TBE infections.

However, in more alpine and inland regions, we did not find any reindeer seropositive for TBEV, which might suggest that might not have reached these inland regions.

Further monitoring, including analysis of other deer species, needs to be performed to verify this.

Despite TBEV’s widespread geographical distribution from Hvaler in the South-East to the Arctic circle in the north, human TBE cases tend to cluster around specific coastal regions.

The TBEV-Eu strain often presents with mild symptoms, which can be misdiagnosed as flu or other illnesses. A retrospective analysis revealed several cases which were not reported, which highlighting the risk of underestimation of the disease.

However, we can not rule out that these cases were due to previous vaccination. For genotyping and distribution of the virus we successfully established a whole genome sequencing methodology at the reference laboratory for TBE at the Norwegian Institute of Public Health, Norway.

This methodology enables bioinformatic and phylogenetic analysis, crucial for monitoring TBEV spread in Scandinavia.

For more detailed information, please refer to the complete PhD thesis available through academic channels.