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The Lyme Wars (2013)

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Re: The Lyme Wars (2013)

#31

Post by ckinnan »

mrfusion wrote: post #23

It's funny, there's actually a vaccine [1]. It's amazing we're not getting it out there: > In 1998 SmithKline Beecham (now GlaxoSmithKline) developed a vaccine that was about 80 percent effective for at least a year after three doses. [1] http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/19/opinion/bring-back-the-lym...

Unlike most vaccines, there's no herd immunity benefit for humans because the transmission vector are ticks. So to make any headway we have to go after the ticks, and their hosts, the deer and the deer mouse.

Re: The Lyme Wars (2013)

#32

Post by Pyrodogg »

I was diagnosed with Lyme disease when i was in elementary school, ~5th grade. No rash was noticed. It wasn't until days later than my knees had swollen so bad that I couldn't walk without significant pain that my teachers and parents actually did anything.

Antibiotics and god awful syringes to extract the fluid in my knees. Even though I've been without pain in my knees since, it's left me with a life long hatred for high impact things like running.

I'm now 27. I'd generally say that I feel just fine. But on the other hand, "foggy brained" is also something that i'm pretty sure my Mother, and close friends would pin me as being.

Re: The Lyme Wars (2013)

#33

Post by cjcole »

Alex3917 wrote: post #5
jobu wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It wasn't until after having a kid and getting very conflicting advice from different doctors for the same issues that I realized doctors are mostly making educated guesses on treatment. Fortunately, there's a significant placebo effect for nearly any treatment from a doctor, so even when doctors make guesses it often ends up helping.

Not sure how much placebo effect is going to help with a bacterial infection. Especially with this new disease that was just discovered in New York State last year, you get it within 15 minutes (unlike Lyme which allegedly takes 24 hours) and it has a 30% chance of killing you. The members of my local mycology group are getting absolutely dropped by these things... One of our members almost died a couple months ago a…

"I've even started wearing boxer briefs just to keep them out of there at least."

Sadly, doesn't work. I've found two attached under the elastic band. Maybe they like the heat?

Re: The Lyme Wars (2013)

#34

Post by mrfusion »

ckinnan wrote: post #31
mrfusion wrote: post #23

It's funny, there's actually a vaccine [1]. It's amazing we're not getting it out there: > In 1998 SmithKline Beecham (now GlaxoSmithKline) developed a vaccine that was about 80 percent effective for at least a year after three doses. [1] http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/19/opinion/bring-back-the-lym...

Unlike most vaccines, there's no herd immunity benefit for humans because the transmission vector are ticks. So to make any headway we have to go after the ticks, and their hosts, the deer and the deer mouse.

Don't the ticks get it from humans though?

Re: The Lyme Wars (2013)

#35

Post by ckinnan »

ep103 wrote: post #21
fasteo wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Looking at this from the outside, it seems to me that deer hunters are more likely to get lyme disease and so, they should favor deer population control.

If you're just going out into the woods for a day, its relatively easy to stay safe. You wear certain types of clothes, tuck them into each other a certain way, spray yourself with tick repellent, come home, throw them immediately into the wash, and then shower and check your body. Ticks are much more difficult for children (who have to be taught the above), definitely people with outdoor pets, people who didn't expe…

Specifically, when going into tick areas, no open toed shoes, no shorts, and wear long sleeves. Tuck your pants legs into your socks. Most ticks climb up from your feet. Another tip is to treat your outdoor shoes with permethrin on the first of each month in May, June, July, and August.

Re: The Lyme Wars (2013)

#36

Post by ckinnan »

mrfusion wrote: post #34
ckinnan wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Unlike most vaccines, there's no herd immunity benefit for humans because the transmission vector are ticks. So to make any headway we have to go after the ticks, and their hosts, the deer and the deer mouse.

Don't the ticks get it from humans though?

No the ticks get Lyme from the deer mouse, which is the reservoir species for the bacteria. After they feed on mice, they can give humans Lyme as nymphs or later as adults. http://www.tickencounter.org/tick_identification/deer_tick_l...

Re: The Lyme Wars (2013)

#37

Post by maxerickson »

mrfusion wrote: post #34
ckinnan wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Unlike most vaccines, there's no herd immunity benefit for humans because the transmission vector are ticks. So to make any headway we have to go after the ticks, and their hosts, the deer and the deer mouse.

Don't the ticks get it from humans though?

I guess they can, but the wild animals are the primary disease reservoir, mostly just because there aren't all that many ticks feeding on humans and making it back into the wild.

It also matters what species egg laying females feed on. The first few paragraphs of this lay it out:

http://wwwnc.cdc.gov/eid/article/16/3/09-0911_article

Re: The Lyme Wars (2013)

#38

Post by llimllib »

ckinnan wrote: post #8

Lyme is now the number one infectious disease in New England. Until medical science finds an effective cure, the best solution is to hunt deer populations back down to historical and sustainable levels, around 10 or 15 deer per square mile. (current populations approach 60 deer per square mile in some areas). While mice are the most important reservoir for Lyme (and pass it to humans via tick nymphs), the adult black…

> Lyme is now the number one infectious disease in New England.

Do you have a source for that claim?

edit: asked an ER doc, they joked "that's ridiculous, it's the common cold". Also my research and the doc suggest that Lyme is second to Chlamydia.

Re: The Lyme Wars (2013)

#39

Post by kragen »

ckinnan wrote: post #31
mrfusion wrote: post #23

It's funny, there's actually a vaccine [1]. It's amazing we're not getting it out there: > In 1998 SmithKline Beecham (now GlaxoSmithKline) developed a vaccine that was about 80 percent effective for at least a year after three doses. [1] http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/19/opinion/bring-back-the-lym...

Unlike most vaccines, there's no herd immunity benefit for humans because the transmission vector are ticks. So to make any headway we have to go after the ticks, and their hosts, the deer and the deer mouse.

Reducing Lyme infections by 80% would still be "making any headway" in my book.

Re: The Lyme Wars (2013)

#40

Post by flatline »

Vomzor wrote: post #20
Kenji wrote: post #9

I had Lyme disease and I started having symptoms (but no rash) roughly after 1-2 weeks after the tick bite (feeling unwell, shivering, joint pains, swollen lymph nodes). I then took antibiotics for almost 2 weeks. I continued to have severe joint pain for a couple of months. Now, more than a year later, I am feeling well, but sometimes I still feel a very slight joint pain in those affected joints near that tick bite…

I have Lyme disease. Tick bite when I was 10 years old, finally discovered I have Lyme at age 26, after years of suffering and getting more symptoms year after year. I'm now at the beginning of a long term antibiotics course. After 2 months of antibiotics, my foggy brain is starting to clear up again... for one or two hours a day in the evening I can think & focus again. The rest of the day I'm useless. So it seems 2…

My mom was bitten by a tick in Colorado and given a 2 week course of antibiotics when she started to feel ill. She got better then promptly got worse as soon as they ran out. Over the next six months she progressively worsened until she could only get out of bed for a couple hours a day. Finally she found out about Lyme disease - many doctors do not believe that it even occurs in Colorado so she didn't know what was wrong for the longest time. She found a doctor out of state that insurance would cover who would treat her. She was on heavy doses of oral antibiotics for four years and has never had a relapse, some 20 years later.

Good luck on your treatment.

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