General Discussion

DonViejo

(60,536 posts) Sun Apr 13, 2014, 10:06 AM Apr 2014

Thank Anti-Vaxxers for Lyme Disease

Kent Sepkowitz

LYMErix, a promising vaccine for Lyme disease introduced in the ‘90s, was taken off the market due to pushback from anti-vaxxers (among other groups). Is it time to bring the drug back?

Well it’s springtime once again. Flowers are blooming, love is in the air, and hopefulness abounds for one and all.

Except infectious disease specialists: for us, spring signals the start of Lyme season, a months-long slog through patient doubt and acrimony that makes us root for the bitter bite of winter to still the hopping, blood-sucking advance of the tick. April is indeed the cruelest month, not only breeding lilacs from the dead but awakening countless nymph ticks from a months-long slumber, each desperate to find a leg or hairy back to set up shop and take a vampiric meal.

First described almost 40 years ago, little has changed about Lyme diagnostics or treatment in the last few decades. What has happened however is the birth and continued growth of a group of patients who have chased the concept of the condition called “chronic Lyme disease” to the ends of science and beyond. Chronic Lyme is a protean disease said to affect primarily neurologic function; the remedy, according to believers in the syndrome, is long-term, if not indefinite, courses of intravenous antibiotics.

The group has substantial influence. In 2002 an FDA-approved Lyme vaccine was an unexpected victim of the ongoing struggle between chronic Lyme advocates and those who ascribe to the orthodoxies of allopathic medicine, a semi-derogatory term used to refer to those who went the boring route to medical school and who read conventional textbooks and ascribe to the accumulated wisdom and evidence of generations of traditional boring physicians (like me).

more
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/04/13/thank-anti-vaxxers-for-lyme-disease.html

5 replies

= new reply since forum marked as read

Highlight:

Thank Anti-Vaxxers for Lyme Disease (Original Post) DonViejo Apr 2014 OP

What a crock. Crunchy Frog Apr 2014 #1

So you can catch Lyme from another who has not been vaccinated? shanemcg Apr 2014 #2

I've had Lyme and trust me, you don't want it Warpy Apr 2014 #3

Baxter has a new one undergoing trials Xithras Apr 2014 #4

Another problem with that particular vaccine Crunchy Frog Apr 2014 #5

Crunchy Frog

(26,587 posts)

1. What a crock.

Reply to DonViejo (Original post)

Sun Apr 13, 2014, 11:02 AM

Apr 2014

shanemcg

(80 posts)

2. So you can catch Lyme from another who has not been vaccinated?

Reply to DonViejo (Original post)

Sun Apr 13, 2014, 11:22 AM

Apr 2014

God help us if it ever becomes airborne!

Bless your heart!

Warpy

(111,275 posts)

3. I've had Lyme and trust me, you don't want it

Reply to DonViejo (Original post)

Sun Apr 13, 2014, 11:27 AM

Apr 2014

Oh, I noticed the bulls-eye rash and got appropriate treatment but it meant struggling through life for three weeks of spiking temps over 103F. It also meant excision of the area I was bitten because it continued to fester for almost a year, giving me another great scar.

Lyme is a very old disease, Oetzi was found to have it some 5500 years ago and it possibly contributed to his heart disease, so far the worst complication confirmed attributable to untreated Lyme. Only when wealthy people in the Connecticut exurbs started to get sick from it was it identified and the vectors named.

I would hope the vaccine is reintroduced at some point and that it is safe and effective.

http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/oetzi-iceman-mummy-alps-lyme-disease-lactose-intolerance/story?id=15816788

Xithras

(16,191 posts)

4. Baxter has a new one undergoing trials

Reply to DonViejo (Original post)

Sun Apr 13, 2014, 12:37 PM

Apr 2014

And unlike the one marketed by SmithKline in the 90's, it guards against all strains of Lyme disease (Lymerix only defended against one), doesn't require yearly boosters, doesn't have a 25% adverse reaction rate, and most importantly...it uses engineered antibodies that shouldn't trigger Lyme Arthritis in susceptible individuals.

I'm not an anti-vaxxer by any stretch of the imagination, but the article downplays several very real problems with the Lymerix vaccine. It's true that the manufacturer eventually pulled the vaccine due to public fear, but Glaxo wasn't totally off base when they decided that it wasn't worth fighting for.

Crunchy Frog

(26,587 posts)

5. Another problem with that particular vaccine

Reply to Xithras (Reply #4)

Sun Apr 13, 2014, 12:47 PM

Apr 2014

Once you've had it, you will always test positive for Lyme, essentially making current diagnostic tools useless should you actually contract the disease despite being vaccinated.

My mother had Lyme a few summers ago, and I've pulled deer ticks off my sons, and all just from being in our back yard. You'd better believe that I'd like to see a safe and effective vaccine become available.

Reply to this discussion