Researchers are recruiting thousands of volunteers in the United States and Europe. This is to test her first potential vaccine in 20 years against Lyme disease, in hopes of improving the fight against tick-borne threats.
Lyme disease is a growing problem. Rising numbers of infected people and a warming climate are expanding tick habitats. Vaccines for dogs have been available for some time, but the only Lyme vaccine for humans was withdrawn from the U.S. market in 2002 due to lack of demand, forcing people to resort to bug spray and tick checks. no longer get
Currently Pfizer and French biotech Valneva are working to develop a new vaccine to protect both adults and five-year-olds from the most common form of Lyme disease. It aims to avoid previous pitfalls. Tension on two continents.
READ MORE: Tick season is here, but experts say there is 'no reason' for Canadians to be overly concerned.
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"I don't think there was that perception of the severity of Lyme disease." , Annalisa Anderson, vaccine chief at Pfizer, told the Associated Press.
His Robert Terwilliger, an avid hunter and hiker, was first in line Friday when the survey began in central Pennsylvania. He is tired of seeing so many of his friends contract Lyme disease and wondering if the next tick bite will make him sick. When you're sitting in the trees and hunting, you feel something crawling around you," said Terwilliger, 60, of Williamsburg, Pennsylvania. "You have to be very careful."
The exact frequency of Lyme disease is not clear. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention cites insurance records that suggest 476,000 people in the United States receive treatment for Lyme disease each year. Pfizer's Anderson puts the annual number of infections in Europe at about 130,000.
Black-legged ticks, also called deer ticks, carry the bacteria that cause Lyme. Infections initially cause fatigue, fever, and joint pain. Often, but not always, the first sign is a red, rounded bullseye rash.
Early antibiotic treatment is important, but it can be difficult to tell if you have been bitten by a tiny needle-like tick. Unprocessed lime can cause severe arthritis and damage the heart and nervous system. Some people continue to have symptoms after treatment.
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Most vaccines against other diseases work after people are exposed to the bacteria. Lyme vaccines offer another strategy — Gary Wurmser, Ph.D., a Lyme expert at New York Medical College who was not involved in the new study, says one step to block tick bites from transmitting infection.
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methods. It targets an “outer surface protein” of Lyme bacteria called OspA present in the gut of ticks. It is estimated that the tick has to eat someone for about 36 hours before the bacterium spreads to the victim. You are given time to attack.
In a small early stage study, Pfizer and Varneva reported good immune responses with no safety issues. test if there is The companies aim to employ at least 6,000 people in the northeastern United States and Lyme-prone regions including Finland, Germany, the Netherlands, Poland and Sweden.
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They will give either the vaccine or the placebo between now and next spring during tick season. inoculate once. A year later they would receive his one booster dose.
"We are really looking at seasonal vaccines," said Anderson.
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as volunteers spend a lot of time in tick-infested areas such as hikers, campers and hunters. , should be at high risk, said Dr. Alan Kiwitz, who heads one of the research sites at the Altoona Clinical Research Center. Duncansville, Pennsylvania.
In his own practice, Kibbitz said, "Not a single day goes by that someone is worried about or might have Lyme disease."
This new candidate differs from his previous Lyme vaccine, which GlaxoSmithKline had withdrawn from the market in 2002 amid controversy and poor sales. With an efficacy of about 75%, the old lime shot received lukewarm support from vaccine experts, was untested in children, and garnered unsubstantiated reports of joint-related side effects.
The new Pfizer-Varneva vaccine also targets the OspA protein, but is designed somewhat differently than its predecessor, targeting not just one but six Lyme strains in the US and Europe.
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Pfizer study spans two tick seasons to get answers _ but prevent Lyme disease That's not the only new way to do it. Scientists at the University of Massachusetts are working on a shot of antibodies that fight off-the-shelf lime, an alternative to vaccines.
Also, a Yale University study are in the early stages of designing a vaccine that recognizes tick saliva, which in animal studies has caused skin reactions that make it difficult for ticks to stick and feed. Ultimately, "we need vaccines to prevent tick bites," Wurmser said, because many other diseases are transmitted.
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