If Youve Ever Had Lyme Disease, Blame the Anti-Vaxxers (Mother Jones)

[eppur_se_muova]

Kevin DrumJul. 23, 2017 5:46 PM

Lyme disease has been spreading for years, and thanks to global warming it’s poised to explode over the next few years. This map is from New Scientist:



That’s bad. But it turns out there’s a vaccine for Lyme disease. Or I guess I should say, there used to be a vaccine for Lyme disease. In 1998 the FDA approved a a drug called Lymerix, and it was pretty effective until the chronic Lyme crowd and the anti-vaxxers started ranting:

Influenced by now-discredited research purporting to show a link between the MMR vaccine and autism, activists raised the question of whether the Lyme disease vaccine could cause arthritis. Media coverage and the anti-Lyme-vaccination groups gave a voice to those who believed their pain was due to the vaccine, and public support for the vaccine declined.

“The chronic arthritis was not associated with Lyme,” says Stanley Plotkin, an adviser to pharmaceutical company Sanofi Pasteur. “When you’re dealing with adults, all kinds of things happen to them. They get arthritis, they get strokes, heart attacks. So unless you have a control group, you’re in la-la land.”

But there was a control group – the rest of the US population. And when the FDA reviewed the vaccine’s adverse event reports in a retrospective study, they found only 905 reports for 1.4 million doses. Still, the damage was done, and the vaccine was benched.
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(a little) more: http://www.motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2017/07/if-youve-ever-had-lyme-disease-blame-the-anti-vaxxers/

[Warpy]

1. Nah, I'll blame that little, shiny sonofabitch I found dug into my left calf

I also think deer are a lot less picturesque since I had the disease.

As I dimly recall, they pulled the vaccine because it wasn't that effective long term. I seem to recall people being unprotected within a very few years. It was expensive, too expensive for people needing frequent boosters and insurance companies balked. It's still on the market as a veterinary vaccine. It was pulled from human use because of these factors, especially the insurance company refusing to pay for it, reducing demand.

There is no problem with double blind studies and a vaccine. The people in the control group will contract the disease, but it's still very treatable with 3-4 weeks of antibiotics. Trying to assess if a vaccine works doesn't mean people have to forgo treatment if it doesn't.

[airmid]

2. Love the dig at chronic lyme suffers. I have had the disease since 1995 and have consistently

tested positive on every test since the first discovered I had it 1007 during a spinal tap. As to the vaccine...I never heard much about it.

[applegrove]

3. Now certain ticks cause allergic reactions to red meat in human sufferers.

Those are the ticks with the white spot on them. Mostly found in the South East USA.

[madokie]

4. This concerns me

as an avid outdoorsman. I spend a lot of time in the woods searching for edible mushrooms plus just enjoying the Serenity of being out there. The biggest problem I have is where I spend most of my time there is very little if any cell service and me being an old bastard (69) and counting it worries me if I have an accident.

I've picked so many ticks off me over the years to fill a barn. Maybe I've built up a resistance to Lyme disease. More than likely its not made its way to these parts yet.

Having said that one of my neighbors young daughter was diagnosed with Lyme's disease when she was 9 years old. This was 25 or so years ago so who knows. The poor girl had a rough time of it as the symptoms are pretty much like arthritis. To be so young and be almost crippled by this disease was heart breaking for all involved. I'm not sure how she is doing now as they moved away years ago.

anti-vaxxers are nuttier than squirrel shit

[torius]

5. yes, insulting chronic sufferers

Last edited Wed Jul 26, 2017, 04:43 AM - Edit history (2)

is the way to go here. For sure. Bet YOU have never had Lyme. 20 years for me. btw, there's no specific definition of chronic Lyme beyond continuing symptoms. Guess you're going to say it's all in our heads.

[KT2000]

6. "chronic Lyme crowd"

use of that term makes me doubt the article.

[joet67]

7. Enthusiasts, really, dontcha know? 😯

[TreasonousBastard]

8. What's the "chronic lyme crowd"? I got it about 10 years ago and...

it was misdiagnosed at first. Eventually, after the worst effects abated I went through an antibiotic series to, hopefully, kill off the last of it hiding somewhere.

It left me with a bum knee, which is very slowly healing, but I seem to be one of the luckier ones.

Anyway, now that they're looking for it it seems to be reasonably treatable. There are a bunch of other tick diseases out there, though.

You can protect yourself from ticks, but be very careful when your dog or cat goes outside. Near as I can tell. I got it from a tick the cat brought in.

[pnwmom]

9. University of Washington doctors treat two young sufferers of chronic lyme I personally know.

I'm not inclined to be impressed with any rep of Big Pharma who doubts the condition is real.

And I'm not impressed with the low number of adverse events reports. When one of my children had seizures after a vaccine (the same vaccine I later learned had killed my sister, that has since been replaced by a safer version), the doctor said it couldn't be vaccine related because his fever wasn't high enough. As a young mother not acquainted with the health field, I didn't realize there was such a thing as an adverse event report and the doctor didn't mention it to me.

It makes me wonder how many other serious reactions go unreported.

[pnwmom]

10. Here is a less biased report of the vaccine based on a study funded by NIH.

It turns out that some subset of individuals might have a genetic susceptibility to chronic arthritis from Lyme disease -- and also from the vaccine.

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

At the same time, laboratory investigators started to gain a better molecular understanding of Lyme arthritis. Following infection with B. burgdorferi, people with the human leukocyte associated antigen (HLA) type DR4+ genotype (HLA-DRB1*0401) might experience increased risk of developing chronic treatment-resistant arthritis. These patients produce high levels of autoantibody to OspA in their synovial fluid [31]. Laboratory experiments found a striking resemblance between the immunodominant epitope of OspA, in the context of DR4+, to peptides within the leukocyte integrin LFA-1. Indeed, patients with treatment-resistant Lyme arthritis, but not other forms of chronic arthritis, demonstrated autoreactivity against LFA-1 [32]. Although more recent studies suggest that LFA-1 does not represent the relevant autoantigen [33], OspA antibodies might react against other, as yet unidentified, autoimmune targets.

These findings suggested that, in patients with the DR4+ genotype, an immune response against OspA could translate into a cross-reactive autoimmune response. By implication, an OspA Lyme vaccine might result in autoimmunity in these genetically predisposed individuals. Although causality proved difficult to demonstrate, one study reported four male patients with the DR4+ genotype who developed autoimmune arthritis after receiving LYMErix™ vaccine [34].

Differential genetic susceptibility applied to immunization risk represents a new concept. Although the clinical importance of the DR4+ genotype to a person receiving an OspA Lyme vaccine remains incompletely understood, some suggest screening recipients for HLA type DR4+ and vaccinating only non-carriers. However, genetic screening would add significantly to the costs of a vaccination programme, shifting the cost-benefit ratio towards only the patients at the highest risks of acquiring Lyme disease. However, this approach might limit the potential risks from a vaccine with demonstrated ability to provide more good than harm for the majority of the population.

[eppur_se_muova]

11. Thanks for that info. The author did seem to bring his own biases to the story. nt

[ileus]

12. add a 2014 dot for me.

[AngryAmish]

13. If there ever was a candidate for a gene drive the deer tick is one of them

[Vinca]

14. I sure wish there was a vaccine available. We can't even walk out to the garden without spraying

ourselves. (FYI, I found a great natural spray made with essential oils that works really well. "No Buzz, No Bites" by Good Products of Vermont.) I had Lyme several years ago and went through treatment. In May I had another nasty bite and did the antibiotic regimen again and while I was on it I had another bite. I'm starting to think I should give up rural living and move to the city.

[HockeyMom]

15. The bottom line is Profits

Will enough of the Public decide to get the vaccine in order for the manufacturers to make money from it? That in all likely hood was the major reason there hasn't been a vaccine. Very much the same with a vaccine for West Nile vaccination. Where is that vaccine?

Looking at that map, many millions of people at risk, BUT what percentage will voluntarily decide to get that vaccine? Are ticks a year round problem in the Northern States, unlike mosquitoes Florida (Zika)?

We recently moved to the Mountains in Pa., directly across from State Game Lands. I see deer all the time on my property. Ticks? We have a screened in Sun Room about 8 feet above the ground. I've seen ticks in my Sun Room. Smash them with my shoes. A few times I have felt and seen them crawling on my bare skin. Should I cover up in my Sun Room? Flick, Smash. They don't immediately bite on when they get on you? Guess not. I NEVER saw them on my Sun Room in the Winter. It's not heated.

My neighbor is right now outside mowing the grass in a T-Shirt and Shorts. Not worried about Ticks? My guess is that he isn't going to run out and get a Lyme Vaccination, and neither will I. If the numbers aren't there for a vaccine, it will not be profitable enough for the manufacturers. Is Lyme contagious from human to human? No? That alone limits the uptake.

BTW, I used to work for a Major Pharm. Profits are the bottom line.