FRANKLIN – Did you know there used to be a vaccine for Lyme Disease? LYMErix was available briefly in the 1990s and after completing the three-shot series was found to be 76-92% effective at preventing Lyme Disease. But a small group of people sued, claiming they developed arthritis as a result. Interestingly, those claims came out around the same time as a study in the medical journal, Lancet, claiming a link between autism and vaccines came out. You remember that study, right? It’s still causing misinformation today even though the Lancet retracted it and Dr. Wakefield, the doctor who published it, has since been struck off the UK medical register for unethical behavior and deliberate falsification of the research. Later, the FDA conducted tests to verify if the claims about arthritis being linked to the Lyme vaccine were true, but didn’t find those results in its research. It was too late for LYMErix though, sales were terrible due to the bad press and the manufacturer stopped making it.
Now a company, Valneva, is working to develop a new vaccine for Lyme disease which is showing promise. It’s scheduled to complete Phase 2 clinical development in 2020; they’re figuring out the best dose amount and timing of doses in humans, but probably won’t be available for another four to five years.
Franklin VNA & Hospice is dedicated to the health of you and your family. Until a safe, effective vaccine is available, here are some tried and true preventative measures to keep us safe from ticks, since the bite of an infected tick is what makes us sick. In our area we need to watch mainly for the Blacklegged Tick. So, check yourself, and anyone you’ve been outside with, as soon as you come in, to make sure no ticks are either attached to you or on your clothes. Ticks like to attach in the groin, armpits, and scalp, but can attach to any skin, so check thoroughly. A shower, within two hours of being outside, can help as well.
To stop ticks from finding good areas to attach to your body, wear clothes that provide good coverage, like long sleeved shirts and pants tucked into your socks. Light colored clothes help make tick spotting easier, and spraying your clothes with permethrin, as that kills ticks, and using a CDC recommended pesticide on yourself, like a DEET solution, will help too. Ten minutes in a high heat dryer will kill any ticks left on your dry clothes. If you need to wash your clothes, wash and dry with hot water and high heat.
Avoiding grassy, bushy or wooded areas for yourself, and keeping your pets out of them, can help decrease tick contact, and if you have those areas around your lawn, clean them up to stop giving ticks good places to live and breed.
Placing tick tubes around in the early spring and fall can be effective, there are good sites online to learn how to make your own from toilette paper tubes and permethrin-soaked cotton balls, or you can buy them ready made.
Lastly, if you do find an attached tick, use a tick scoop as directed or pair of tweezers to remove it by grasping it as close to the skin’s surface as possible and pulling slowly but firmly upwards. Then clean the area the tick was attached with rubbing alcohol and monitor it over the next few days. Whichever device you use, never crush a tick with your fingers. Dispose of a live tick by putting it in alcohol, or wrapping it tightly in tape. This way you can identify the tick species, and have it available if it ever needs to get tested.