A shot to prevent Lyme disease could be on its way • Hacker News Board

Re: A shot to prevent Lyme disease could be on its way

#101

Post by somehnacct3757 » Tue, Aug 17, 2021, 12:17 PM UTC

giantg2 wrote: post #78

somehnacct3757 wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The deer themselves are a problem in the northeast. They are greatly overpopulated and eat the native understory, preventing the next generation of trees from growing past adolescence. As the existing trees slowly die, there will be none younger to replace them. This also clears out the competition to the benefit of non-native plants, which the deer don't eat. Some of these plants are invasive, such as japanese barbe…

The mice are the main component to the lyme lifecycle. There is a researcher working to give mice immunity using crispr. Generally, the deer are only overpopulating (at least to the extent you describe) in areas that aren't hunted, which also tend to be highly populated. It seems many people enjoy seeing the deer in their backyards and don't want their almost-pets to be killed, especially if it means it might have to…

Show them a close-up of a deer's face in an ad campaign, lol. They're covered in ticks, it's like a Ren & Stimpy zoom shot.

You could also get more ppl into gardening. Gardeners end up hating deer after their gardens get raided once or twice.

Re: A shot to prevent Lyme disease could be on its way

#102

Post by nikkinana » Tue, Aug 17, 2021, 12:18 PM UTC

There's also a treatment that's extremely effective.

Re: A shot to prevent Lyme disease could be on its way

#103

Post by acdha » Tue, Aug 17, 2021, 12:19 PM UTC

nickthemagicman wrote: post #14

hannob wrote: post #2

The article touches this briefly: I think it's horrible that the antivax movement successfully managed to push a working lyme vaccine off the market, based on concerns that turned out to be false. Every time you get a tick you should remember that you could be safe from lyme, but the antivax movement took that away from us.

It was a large law firm looking to make a buck who blew it out of proportion ...not anivaxxers. Here's another good article from a more legitimate source. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2870557/

It’s not OR but AND: as described in that article, the law firms didn’t come up with the lawsuit out of the blue but saw the hundreds of people who set up “victims” groups alleging all sorts of injuries caused by the vaccine.

It seems noteworthy that this was relatively early in the Internet reshaping society: these groups had websites but not massive companies like Facebook promoting them. This ability for people to self-organize and diagnose at a large scale is still having interesting ripple effects, both helping people with unusual conditions which are commonly misdiagnosed and helping build lawsuits or political movements from people who really aren’t interested in accepting the science.

Re: A shot to prevent Lyme disease could be on its way

#104

Post by mrfusion » Tue, Aug 17, 2021, 12:20 PM UTC

I’ve found the biggest places to watch out for ticks are where not many people go. Little travelled trails. The heavily trafficked areas seem to have way less ticks.

My working theory is the deer to human ratio of an area determines how many deer ticks.

Re: A shot to prevent Lyme disease could be on its way

#105

Post by cmrdporcupine » Tue, Aug 17, 2021, 12:23 PM UTC

giantg2 wrote: post #78

somehnacct3757 wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The deer themselves are a problem in the northeast. They are greatly overpopulated and eat the native understory, preventing the next generation of trees from growing past adolescence. As the existing trees slowly die, there will be none younger to replace them. This also clears out the competition to the benefit of non-native plants, which the deer don't eat. Some of these plants are invasive, such as japanese barbe…

The mice are the main component to the lyme lifecycle. There is a researcher working to give mice immunity using crispr. Generally, the deer are only overpopulating (at least to the extent you describe) in areas that aren't hunted, which also tend to be highly populated. It seems many people enjoy seeing the deer in their backyards and don't want their almost-pets to be killed, especially if it means it might have to…

Eastern red fox populations need to be higher. They're amazing mouse hunters.

Re: A shot to prevent Lyme disease could be on its way

#106

Post by magpi3 » Tue, Aug 17, 2021, 12:23 PM UTC

zz865 wrote: post #48

Lyme is just one of the horrible diseases ticks carry. Would be nice to cull most of the deer in the North East. A few decades ago they were rare, now they're everywhere.

There are deer feeders that kill ticks. This solution seems more humane then trying to kill most of the deer.

Re: A shot to prevent Lyme disease could be on its way

#107

Post by acdha » Tue, Aug 17, 2021, 12:26 PM UTC

xyzzy21 wrote: post #90

Honestly, I live in the the WORST NY county for Lyme but it really isn't that big a deal. The country across in Vermont is Vermont's top Lyme county. And I live in the woods. Basically it's easily treated once you are fairly sure you have it with VERY MILD antibiotics that aren't super at risk for resistance. Getting Lyme is a pretty normal and common thing. Akin to catching a cold - it's simply inevitable but you wi…

I believe you intended this to be reassuring but consider how it reads to the many people who’ve had significant, long-term effects from the disease. Maybe tone it down a bit on the “no big deal” front and focus on the key part: “if promptly diagnosed” with the advice about prevention and detection that implies.

Re: A shot to prevent Lyme disease could be on its way

#108

Post by jacksonkmarley » Tue, Aug 17, 2021, 12:27 PM UTC

inter_netuser wrote: post #95

jacksonkmarley wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

From that study: > These results however do not clarify whether the Borrelia infection had anything to do with her progressive neurodegenerative disorder

Impossible to do this reliably on a single patient with multiple conditions and advanced age. One could take a guess, but the error bar would be 0.0-1.0 This study set out to prove chronic persistence of the pathogen despite standard treatments, which is rather hard to dispute.

Being able to detect Borrelia Spirochetes is not equivalent to linking them with chronic symptoms.

Re: A shot to prevent Lyme disease could be on its way

#109

Post by riedel » Tue, Aug 17, 2021, 12:27 PM UTC

spicybright wrote: post #23

As a US new england-er, this is game changer for walking through woods. For those un-informed, on a walk through any woods, you should always wear high socks, and do a full body check for ticks after. Deer ticks can be as small as a few grains of sand, and near undetectable if they latch on unless you have sharp eyes. Obviously they can transmit lymes. I had a close encounter a few years ago, but very luckily giant r…

Actually Lyme is a huge problem in southern Germany as well. Actually it seems that a lot of inflammatory joint problems stem from it that are often wrongly diagnosed.

Re: A shot to prevent Lyme disease could be on its way

#110

Post by spiderfarmer » Tue, Aug 17, 2021, 12:30 PM UTC

riedel wrote: post #109

spicybright wrote: post #23

As a US new england-er, this is game changer for walking through woods. For those un-informed, on a walk through any woods, you should always wear high socks, and do a full body check for ticks after. Deer ticks can be as small as a few grains of sand, and near undetectable if they latch on unless you have sharp eyes. Obviously they can transmit lymes. I had a close encounter a few years ago, but very luckily giant r…

Actually Lyme is a huge problem in southern Germany as well. Actually it seems that a lot of inflammatory joint problems stem from it that are often wrongly diagnosed.

And brain problems, discovered years later.