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As the title says, a new vaccine for Lyme Disease is in its third stage human trial, with hope that it could be available some time in 2025. I hadn’t realised that a highly effective vaccine was available twenty-five years ago, but a few people complained about suffering arthritis as a result of taking it, and the media got involved and stirred up a big anti-vaxx campaign. No connection was ever proved, but the damage was done, people refused to use it, and it was withdrawn! 🤬
https://newatlas.com/health-wellbeing/lyme-disease-vaccine-pfizer-final-phase-human-trials/
That is good news
And you hardly hear from anti vaxxers these days so hopefully they wont be a problem.
The anti-vaxxers will be busy with the proposed Polio vaccine roll out in London.
A vaccine for a fairly rare and difficult to diagnose disease, often identified by people doing their own research and then blamed for everything from lunar eclipses to a runny nose only to be told there's no proof by experts and professionals?*
In honesty I can see the antivaxxers getting behind mass roll-out for this one.
*it is a real thing, it's not a good thing to catch and it can be very serious. But it also ticks (sorry) all the boxes your local qanoner could possibly want barring an allergy to radio.
getting behind mass roll-out for this one
Why would you mass roll out a vaccine for a low incidence illness?
Why would you mass roll out a vaccine for a low incidence illness?
Well you wouldn't. Which is half the reason I can see the antivaxxers calling for it.
Tick borne disease is prevalent enough here in Finland that most people I know have the vaccine.
#Edit Sorry, this vaccine is for TBE rather than Lyme disease.
Edit Sorry, this vaccine is for TBE rather
Darn, now you've reminded me to check mine is upto date but with precisely not enough time to do anything about it before I travel except know if it is it not.
This is good news.
And in tick heavy areas has to be better than the local drs prescribing antibiotics on a daily basis during the warm months.
Why would you mass roll out a vaccine for a low incidence illness?
We mass vaccinate against low-incidence conditions like meningitis all the time. Indeed because vaccines work other conditions are now low-incindence too (e.g. measles). The point is for relatively rare conditions it may be worth widely vaccinating if the consequences of infection are high enough. I suspect for Lyme its probably not enough for the general public but farm and forestry workers it probably is, and for at least some outdoorsy people it is and some would elect to get it even if they are fairly low risk (I probably would even though I seem to get far fewer ticks than others doing the same things literally at the same time/place).
I'll be first in the queue!
*waves*
Second in queue.
I suspect for Lyme its probably not enough
That was my point. I can't see any cost benefit analysis recommending a mass roll out for this one.
Shotgun third in the queue
Fourth
I'll go fifth fully expecting them to run out after pies had theirs.
I don't think a mass rollout is worth it. It's not being passed on through humans, so vaccinating everyone won't make a difference. Vaccinating all farm and wild mammals in the country would probably help but that might be a touch difficult.
Vaccinating all farm and wild mammals in the country would probably help but that might be a touch difficult.
Mainly you'd need to vaccinate (all) mice. That really would be hard work!
And hedgehogs, my mate picked up a small hedgehog from the road one afternoon and noticed how lifeless and light it was, on closer inspection it was infested with tics so she removed them all with a tic remover, about 25ish in total and kept the hedgehog in a box in the shed with food/water to recover for a few days and put weight back on, she built a wee hut for it and released it into the garden and its now taken up residence. I’ll get pics of the amount of tics, it’s the stuff of nightmares as they were all fat n’ juicy with blood.
No mass rollout is required, it would be very specific based on area where the person lives and what activities they do.
The New Forest has a high incident rate and I go walking about there and have picked up ticks as have the dogs, making me a good candidate for vaccination.
Others live around the New Forest but only leave their houses in a car to get to the nearest towns making them lesser candidates.
And that is in a high risk area
What do the black areas on that graphic mean? No data?
Black is no cases recorded in the period (1998 - 2015)
https://bmcpublichealth.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12889-019-7245-8
I don’t think anyone is advocating a mass rollout of the vaccine, but the number of people suffering from the results of tick bites are escalating, so it makes sense for a vaccine to be made available for those most likely to get it, or more importantly, those who suspect they might have got it.
Vaccination against Lyme disease would now be commonplace if it wasn’t for hysterical media amplifying unfounded claims of a side-effect, as noted in the article, which resulted in a highly effective vaccine being withdrawn.
As count says above, you'd only focus the vaccine on the at risk populations.
Inner city folk who never leave their apartment block - no point
Walkers, mountain bikers, farmers - dose them up!
My daughter loves horses and ponies and was happily stroking a wild dartmoor pony last summer. I got close and realised its whole face was riddled in ticks, gross. No more stroking pony!
Interesting to compare the new forest with the Isle of Wight. Main difference being no wild deer on the isle os with.
Interesting study showing increase number of a)ticks and b)ticks carrying Lyme disease in woods where pheasants are released.
When my daughter caught Lymes disease several years ago, the issue/problem was identifying it, not treating it. Once identified, it was very easily and rapidly treated with a simple course of antibiotics. But the delay in identifying it caused enormous impacts upon my daughter. Absolutely horrible illness. By the way, the children’s consultant confirmed that, at that time, no one in Ireland had ever contracted Lymes disease from a tick bite in Ireland. My daughter was bitten in the Black Forest.
I was watching NI outdoors bloke Stephen J Reid’s YouTube Bikepacking voyage to the Isle of Jura.
His mate and himself were camping by the side of the road. But the amount of ticks!
Obviously the deer travel down to the shore to eat the seaweed. Still, I’ve never seen anything like that.
Even with tweezers and insect repellent, I doubt you’d have much luck, pitching a tent unless you brought one of those garden flamethrowers!
So, if the vaccine works, I’m all for it.
But, it’s ‘only’ for TBE?
Article from 2022. Anything more recent?
February 2025. Potential release date now 2026.
https://www.vax-before-travel.com/2025/02/18/lyme-disease-vaccine-coming-soon
2 things.
One, I'd pay for LD vaccine.
Two, Valneva developed a Covid vaccine and the Tories pulled the plug on investment to produce in Scotland.
OK Three, the shares I bought in Valneva tanked and never recovered. See [One] and please all do the same.
But, it’s ‘only’ for TBE?
No, the TBE vaccine has been around for years. I've been jabbed up regularly since i moved to Sweden, as it's cheap and readily available (we usually pay about £100 for all the family to be done).
LD vaccine is a new thing. I've had LD once, Bullseye rash, straight in for antibiotics (didn't even have to go to the GP, just a two minute call and send a photo of the bullseye). Had blood taken a few months later and got a +ve result. But GPs and labs over here are much more used to dealing with it.
They only recommend the jabs in certain areas and for certain people/jobs. I spend a load of my time in the forest either MTBing or hiking/camping, in a high risk area. So i get TBE every time i get a reminder (3 years i think). My partner is the same. Half my colleagues never venture away from either concrete or the golf course. So they (mostly) don't bother.
Re Jura, I have posted before I was there a d walked for hours through knee high grass and heather. No ticks. I had treated my trousers, socks, and boots with a permethrin spray. Other walkers I met were pulling off a dozen or more a day.
Also light coloured trousers to spot them and any other crawling insects, just bought one of these to expand my collection stylish trousers: https://www.magrigg.co.uk/ss24-columbia-mens-silver-ridge-utility-convertible-pant-tusk.html
A guy at work claimed to have Lyme disease Mon-Fri he always complained of being tried and lethargic and was allowed to go and "rest" on a bed and pass work onto others until the symptoms passed.. however Sat-sun his social media was full of pics of him hillwalking and overnight camping.
Grade A chancer
Potential regulatory filing in 2026... https://valneva.com/research-development/lyme-disease/
Phase 2 results here: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1473309924001750
Mate was an field archaeologist - reckoned he had to shave his crack and sack to make it easier to spot ticks. Reckon bikesandboots trews would have easier.
This year is worse than any recent years for ticks so far. Picking them off dogs after every walk sometimes a dozen a day.
I'd be tempted by the vaccine, but don't people use repellent when out and about? Most insect ones are pretty effective. Incognito's spray works for me and isn't DEET based, so is less grim