Lyme Disease Vaccine May Soon be Available to Outdoors Enthusiasts

September 10, 2019 Aaron Futrell



There are a lot of dangerous creatures lurking in the great outdoors. Bears, mountain lions, and wolves may be the first ones to come to peoples minds but they are not even close to the scariest. In my opinion, one of the scariest is the tick.

The reason that they are so frightening is that they are vectors for a myriad of nasty diseases. Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever, Hartland Disease, and of course, the most famous, Lyme disease are all spread by ticks.

Ticks are so small and can go unnoticed for days. They get in some of the weirdest places and hide. They just sit on your skin, suck your blood and infect your body.



Bull’s Eye rash the Tell-Tale sign of Lyme Disease
But there is hope a new vaccine is on the horizon. According to Healthline, in 2017, the Food and Drug Administration approved a Fast Track designation for a new Lyme disease vaccine.

The vaccine was developed by a French company called Valneva. The company’s vaccine for Lyme disease, VLA15, completed initial trials in2018 and is currently in phase II of clinical testing, Thomas Lingelbach, the company’s CEO, said.

The good news is that the vaccine is looking promising and will enter the next phase of testing mid-2020.

“It’s important to remember that the development of vaccines is measured in years, so it will be some time before this vaccine, if successful, makes it to the general public,” said Dr. Amesh A. Adalja, a senior scholar at Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security. “It appears promising and is the leading candidate vaccine.”


Cases of Lyme Disease in the US
This is great news for all outdoor enthusiast. Approxamently 329,000 people are diagnosed with Lyme disease every year and a good vaccine may help a lot of people be more active outdoors.

When it becomes available for the general population would you get it?

NOTE: This is not the first Lyme disease vaccine that was available. There was one released in the ’90s but concerns about side effects caused it to be pulled from the market. You can read about it here.

https://thehuntingnews.com/lym..._content=lymevaccine

I'm a Lyme survivor.

I was hunting turkey in Iowa with Ray Eye in the 1980s and had a tick bite me on right side of my abdomen. By the time I got home three days later, the tell-tale bullseye had formed.

I went to my doc the very next day and told him I needed a prescription for amoxicillin, which he gave me after checking me out.

He then sent a blood sample off to be tested. It took a while back then because the only lab testing for Lyme was on the east coast somewhere. The sample came up positive, so the early treatment with antibiotics two weeks earlier was worth it.

Thank God for the vaccine. I’d take rattlesnakes over ticks any day. I know people who have been virtually crippled by Lyme disease. It’s a horrible disease

This needs to happen in a big way. Glad someone is working on it.

Have had it twice. First time I was very sick. Second time, had the bullseye, but felt fine.

quote:

I'm a Lyme survivor.

I am also a chronic lymes carrier had it for over 30 years.

Rears it heads up every so often.

Nasty stuff for sure.

I have been bitten many times, here in US, Afrika and Europe in last 50+ years.
Just last August, hunting Roe deer , I got bitten 9 times in 4 days and had another 30-40 on me in that time span.
What is the symptoms?

I am certainly in tick country. I have had a bullseye but never got sick. I did go to my PCP at the time and she sat there telling me that there isn't Lyme in Missouri and sent me out the door.

I would be curious if some people have a natural immunity? I would want to get tested before taking this vaccine but glad there is some serious work on the effort.

Lady down the road got it sometime this past summer.She is on antibiotics but they do not seem to help her,She is very sick.

Anne,

Do a google search for the symptoms of Lyme and you'll see they can be widespread and affect many different parts of your body. For example, if you developed arthritis afterward, it could well be due to Lyme. Likewise for nervous disorders, headaches and more. IOW, it's a very invasive bug that can affect any organ. Plus, it can lay dormant for years before taking hold.

I picked up Lyme in Germany in 2005.

Early detection saved my life.

I am fairly certain it was a Boccacilin (spelling) shot followed by a fairly lengthy run on Doccycycline.

I wonder if this vaccine would work on Limeys?

quote:

Originally posted by Aspen Hill Adventures:
I am certainly in tick country. I have had a bullseye but never got sick. I did go to my PCP at the time and she sat there telling me that there isn't Lyme in Missouri and sent me out the door.

I would be curious if some people have a natural immunity? I would want to get tested before taking this vaccine but glad there is some serious work on the effort.

Lyme disease may not show symptoms for years or they may be immediate. Denial by health care providers is the number one reason Lyme causes the problems it does. Lyme disease exists coast to coast. A medical professional who denies the existence of the disease rather than testing for it is doing his patients no favor.
It was about the same time that AIDS was making headlines that I saw an article in Outdoor Life about Lyme disease. I took a copy in to our family doctor and told him, "I don't care if you know nothing at all about AIDS but I think you should study up on this". Regards, Bill.

My neighbor got it. He was a pilot and had to take disability. It's messed him up bad. I chatted with him a few days ago along our shared fence line. He was in a complete fog as I was talking to him, suffering from a recent flareup of problems.

My niece also came down with it while attending college. Same thing, complete brain fog and inability to function normally. She had to drop out of full time college and is struggling to get through one class a semester.

Apparently the CDC and medical community are not in agreement over the chronic aspects, symptoms, treatments and long term prognosis.

It's a serious disease and you need to guard against tick bites when out in the woods.

A co-worker became seriously ill with it, and doctors mis-diagnosed it for about 3 months. Continued to go downhill, and is now crippled and is now confined to a wheelchair full time. Not a good thing.

My son's girl friend has it right now, and they believe she has had it for years from all the turkey hunting in the South and numerous bites every year. They did a lot of testing and have her on some heavy duty drugs, as a maintenance regimen. They said she may never full be free of it.

quote:

Originally posted by Saeed:
I wonder if this vaccine would work on Limeys?

The Irish would probably all of it if it did.

Just remember it’s the little deer ticks that spread it, not the bigger wood ticks...

And the rash is worthless as far as diagnosis.

If you have concerns, have your doc run the test periodically, it can lie dormant for a time, and if you get the test the same time you get bitten, it can well be a false negative test.

Doc Butler, what about the 'Lone Star' ticks. They seem to be in pestilence proportions. Are they disease vectors?

One of my stepbrothers was a timber faller in Oregon until Lyme crippled him so bad he could no longer even lift his chainsaws. He had to go to the Mayo Clinic for treatment that basically stabilized his condition, but couldn't cure it. It really is a nasty critter, and those tiny deer ticks are easy to miss until they have latched on.
And yes, our climate is changing.

The Lone Star tick does not spread Lymes, but rather it’s own disease state called STARI- southern tick associated rash illness. This is NOT just limited to the south... it’s also not well understood. It seems to respond well to tetracyclines which makes an argument for a bacterial cause, and also it seems to not be associated with long term illness like lymes.

The lone star tick also seems to be associated with causing a food allergy to meat.

quote:

The lone star tick also seems to be associated with causing a food allergy to meat.

Alpha-gal allergy would be awful to contract. I have read that if one avoids mammalian meat for 2 to 5 years one can resume eating it once again.

Alpha-gal Allergy

I've had twice, treated both times. Once early, the other was very late but the infection had localized to a small area and cleared up after antibiotics.

Luckily a fellow shooter at the range I used to frequent is a Doc.
Big ol bullseye on my leg, he said call him Monday and he would call in antibiotic scrip.
I asked about testing and he said at that time the tests were so inaccurate that antibiotic was best.
Good to have an outdoorsman for medical advice of this type.

A bunch of other tick borne diseases that are at least as bad as Lyme.
I'll look for my link to them and post if I find it!