Lyme disease cases are rising. We don’t have a vaccine — but we used to

globalnews.ca:

With Lyme disease cases climbing steadily in Canada, the lack of an available vaccine has become a pressing concern among infectious disease specialists.

Getting bitten by a tick means risking a potential infection with Lyme disease. If left undiagnosed or untreated early, the bacteria can spread deep into different parts of the body and linger for years. This delayed diagnosis can lead to a roller-coaster of symptoms affecting the nervous system, joints, heart, and even skin, often appearing and disappearing unpredictably.

Despite the growing concern about Lyme disease, current preventive measures are limited to using tick-repellent spray, using antibiotics and performing tick checks after spending time outdoors.

The repercussions of Lyme disease can be profound. Last month, a 30-year-old Quebec woman opted for doctor-assisted death after years of battling the illness. Stéphanie Lavoie found herself bedridden in agonizing pain after contracting Lyme disease from a tick years ago. She said the intensity of her suffering led her to choose doctor-assisted death.

Despite the severity of Lyme disease in humans, the only available vaccine, LYMErix, was withdrawn from the U.S. and Canadian markets in 2002 due to low sales and what experts have called “negative publicity.”

“The LYMErix vaccine was authorized in 1998 by the United States Food and Drug Agency, and it was unfortunately recalled from the market by the drug manufacturer just three years later,” Raghu Venugopal, an emergency doctor in Toronto, told Global News.

“And really at the heart of the story of the Lyme vaccine saga is that medical doctors and also probably medical journalists did not do an adequate job in explaining to the public the benefits of the vaccine.”