History of the Symposium

The idea and the initiative for such a meeting came from Jochen Süss and Ingo Braun. The first meeting of its kind took place in Potsdam in 1990 as a kind of further education for medical practitioners. It also provided the first chance for East German and West German tick and tick-borne disease (TBD) researchers to meet and to talk to each other freely for many years, a very stimulating and moving event for the approximately 40 participants.

For the third meeting held in 1995 the Symposium moved to Berlin, mostly because of the growing number of participants.

There were extensive changes at the fourth meeting in 1997: The language was switched to English and the title was changed to ‘International Potsdam Symposium’ (IPS). The rationale was to increase the scientific quality and resonance of the meeting and fortunately, we were successful with both goals. At that time, many European researchers were working together in a EU-Concerted Action ‘Risk Assessment in Lyme Borreliosis’ (EUCALB). Many of those colleagues came to the meeting and contributed significantly to the communicative and warm atmosphere. Altogether, 16 countries were represented.

The Proceedings of IPS-IV were also very successful. Many internationally renowned authors contributed and many relevant mini-reviews and research papers were included. Thus, the idea arose to put all this excellent scientific reading in a journal with a good reputation to ensure wide distribution and high impact. As a result, the subsequent Symposium Proceedings appeared as a supplement of the Zentralblatt für Bakteriologie (Zbl. Bakt., IPS-V), which in 1999 became the International Journal of Medical Microbiology (IJMM, IPS-VI to IPS-VIII). A peer review system further increased the scientific quality of the Proceedings. That the concept was well accepted by the presenters is evident from the growing number of papers in the Proceedings (see Table).

The Symposium has also proved highly attractive for colleagues from Eastern Europe where high quality research work on TBDs has a long tradition. For most of them, participation in one of the big international conferences has been too expensive and this Symposium has therefore been a welcome alternative for them. The organisers of the Symposium are proud that from IPS-IV onwards the number of participants from Eastern Europe and also the number of East European countries represented have always been high. It is a fact that many new contacts and mutual projects between western and eastern colleagues were born or further developed at the Symposium series. Furthermore the highly interesting material from Eastern Europe presented at the Symposium has now been published in English and is thereby accessible and readable for those (many) researchers unable to understand Eastern European languages, particularly Russian.

From IPS-IV onwards other TBDs, in addition to TBE and Lyme borreliosis, and also tick biology topics were included. Other vector-borne diseases began to feature in the Symposium in a sort of cross-fertilization role.

The development of IPS as a well-respected international meeting occurred distinctly and quickly and the brand ‘IPS’ became well known and popular in the ‘tick and TBD community’. A major feature of IPS has been the policy of providing adequate time for discussion after oral presentations and between Sessions.

The next critical step was to shift the Symposium from Berlin to Jena in 2005 owing to the fact that the National Reference Laboratory for Tick-borne Diseases and its head, Jochen Süss, moved from the Berlin Federal Institute for Health Protection of Consumers (BgVV) to the Friedrich-Loeffler-Institute in Jena (FLI). The very high participation (188 from 21 countries) and the large number of presentations (35 oral and 43 poster presentations) have shown that the Symposium promises to thrive at the new venue.

For the second meeting in Jena we felt that it is time to include the town name of the new venue in the title of the Symposium, thus ‘International Jena Symposium on Tick-borne Diseases’ (IJSTD, formerly IPS). The new title does not imply any changes in the Symposium other than that of the venue. In Jena, the Symposium was organised by the National Reference Laboratory for Tick-borne Diseases in the FLI in cooperation with the Friedrich-Schiller-University Jena. It was a pleasing news to hear that papers in the IJSTD/IPS Proceedings are frequently cited (source: Scopus), almost as often as those in the Int. J. Med. Microbiol. (ISI impact factor: ~2.5).

IJSTD-X was held in Weimar to celebrate the 10th Anniversary of this Symposium. Weimar is located next to Jena and is renowned as one of the great cultural sites of Europe. IJSTD-X was held at the Leonardo Hotel, and the participants seemed to appreciate to find accommodation in the same hotel where the symposium takes place. Another distinct change had to be announced: There will be no IJSTD-X Proceedings. Thanks to the growing amount and quality of the former IJSTD/IPS Proceedings, Elsevier who have also published the Int. J. Med. Microbiol. suggested to launch a new journal with high-quality IJSTD-X papers as a basic substrate. A concept was developed, and the new journal was named ‘Ticks and Tick-borne Diseases’. Issue 1 will appear in January 2010, and we hope that the tick/TBD community takes the chance and will publish in that journal. As IJSTD-X also IJSTD-XI will be held in Weimar at the Leonardo Hotel. IJSTD-X will take place 24-26 March, 2011.

We are happy that the ‘tick and TBD community’ has shown such a high level of interest in the Symposium and we very much hope to keep it alive for many more years. Our thanks are also directed to the sponsors, Baxter Deutschland GmbH, Heidelberg, and Baxter BioScience, Vienna, as well as Novartis Vaccines, Basel, for their continuing interest and generous support.

Jochen Süss, Olaf Kahl