Lyme disease vaccine found to be safe and effective in clinical trial

https://www.newscientist.com/article/2250045-lyme-disease-vaccine-found-to-be-safe-and-effective-in-clinical-trial/

by montalbano • 6 years ago

28 5 6 years ago

HALtheWise• 6 years ago

My brother got Lyme disease a couple months ago, and it led me into a research rabbit-hole into what is one of the saddest stories in pharmacology. Basically, we had a perfectly good Lyme disease vaccine in the the 1990s, but it had the misfortune of being launched in the middle of the antivax movement, and it was pulled from the market after false hysteria and undeserved negative press. To be clear, there was no evidence it was unsafe or ineffective, just antivaxxers freaking out.

As a fun twist, there are Lyme vaccines available today for dogs and horses, so the vetrenarians are ahead of the doctors on this one.

heyjon• 6 years ago

The LYMErix vaccine caused similar autoimmune reactions to the disease in some people. There was a lawsuit, and it was pulled from the market. Hopefully the new one does not do that.

acdha• 6 years ago

You’re inadvertently proving their point: try to find a citation for that and you’ll end up with stories circulated by anti-vaccination groups and lawyers hoping to cash in.

This was extensively studied and there’s a summary here:

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2870557/

The other factor conspicuously left out is the question of what happens without a vaccine. People still get Lyme and chasing the vaccine off the market is a net loss if more people catch the disease than would have had significant complications. Those numbers don’t appear to be even close and human impact on the environment means that more people are exposed to Lyme every year.

etempleton• 6 years ago

Lyme Disease is brutal to those who have the misfortune of being exposed and it is notoriously hard to diagnose. It will likely not be required for those in low risk geographic regions, however one imagines it becoming a standard vaccine for those who are in areas where Lyme is prevalent.

Lyme disease vaccine found to be safe and effective in clinical trial

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