4 ms·

I think a good test for Lyme disease would be more important than a vaccine (which is welcome too if it works well). The problem with Lyme disease is that it's

I think a good test for Lyme disease would be more important than a vaccine (which is welcome too if it works well). The problem with Lyme disease is that it's symptoms are very wide and generic, and the commonly used tests are not very reliable. This means that many people live with the disease not aware of it, while others self-diagnose Lyme disease and cure it even if they didn't have it (because they had symptoms like longterm brain fog).

elric 5y ago
I'm not sure why this is getting downvoted. Testing for lyme really is pretty unreliable. Given how hard it is to reliably test for, we really don't have a good grasp on how prevalent lyme infections are. Another thing that would great, in addition to a vaccine and better testing, is prevention. Infected ticks are way more wide spread than they used to be. I've heard various reasons for this, including habitat loss of all kinds of animals. Simple measures can help, like eating more deer, or letting chickens roam free in high-tick areas.
- robbiep 5y ago
  It might be downvotes because the op didn’t read the article, which isn’t about a vaccine (the article says there was one but it was discontinued) but about the Lyme equivalent of PREP
- bregma 5y ago
  I don't understand why there would be a problem testing for borreliosis. It's caused by the borrelia spirochete, which is almost identical to syphilis. The variant of borrelia that causes relapsing fever was one of the very first causative micro-organisms diagnosed because it it so obvious under a low-power microscope. Surely the variant of borrelia named after a town in New England should be as easy to diagnose: if you have the spirochete you have the infection, otherwise you don't. Granted I'm just a rando on the internet and not an expert in infections diseases. On the other hand, I've diagnosed with and successfully treated for Lyme disease. I still get dozens of tick bites a year. A reliable test would be a boon for people like me.
- cmrdporcupine 5y ago
  We keep chickens and I can tell you a domestic chicken roaming free in a high tick area would be gone in a few days. Hawks, foxes, raccoons, coyotes, whatever. They're domesticated and flightless. What you want is guinea hens. They're voracious tick eaters. And will hide in trees, etc. at night. But also noisy as hell, and will walk all over roads. Wild turkeys eat a lot of ticks, so we should be encouraging them. Northern bobwhite quail are a native (to north america) quail which eat a lock of ticks. But they're near-threatened and very few of them in the wild and they also don't go as far north as New England (we have them here in Ontario but sparsely)
vimy 5y ago
Correct. The ELISA test is as reliable as a coin toss. It was also never meant to be used for diagnosis, only for research.
istjohn 5y ago
The problem is that the treatments we currently have for Lyme disease only provide temporary relief for a sizeable minority of sufferers.

elric 5y ago

I'm not sure why this is getting downvoted. Testing for lyme really is pretty unreliable. Given how hard it is to reliably test for, we really don't have a good grasp on how prevalent lyme infections are. Another thing that would great, in addition to a vaccine and better testing, is prevention. Infected ticks are way more wide spread than they used to be. I've heard various reasons for this, including habitat loss of all kinds of animals. Simple measures can help, like eating more deer, or letting chickens roam free in high-tick areas.

robbiep 5y ago
It might be downvotes because the op didn’t read the article, which isn’t about a vaccine (the article says there was one but it was discontinued) but about the Lyme equivalent of PREP
bregma 5y ago
I don't understand why there would be a problem testing for borreliosis. It's caused by the borrelia spirochete, which is almost identical to syphilis. The variant of borrelia that causes relapsing fever was one of the very first causative micro-organisms diagnosed because it it so obvious under a low-power microscope. Surely the variant of borrelia named after a town in New England should be as easy to diagnose: if you have the spirochete you have the infection, otherwise you don't. Granted I'm just a rando on the internet and not an expert in infections diseases. On the other hand, I've diagnosed with and successfully treated for Lyme disease. I still get dozens of tick bites a year. A reliable test would be a boon for people like me.
cmrdporcupine 5y ago
We keep chickens and I can tell you a domestic chicken roaming free in a high tick area would be gone in a few days. Hawks, foxes, raccoons, coyotes, whatever. They're domesticated and flightless. What you want is guinea hens. They're voracious tick eaters. And will hide in trees, etc. at night. But also noisy as hell, and will walk all over roads. Wild turkeys eat a lot of ticks, so we should be encouraging them. Northern bobwhite quail are a native (to north america) quail which eat a lock of ticks. But they're near-threatened and very few of them in the wild and they also don't go as far north as New England (we have them here in Ontario but sparsely)

vimy 5y ago

Correct. The ELISA test is as reliable as a coin toss. It was also never meant to be used for diagnosis, only for research.

istjohn 5y ago

The problem is that the treatments we currently have for Lyme disease only provide temporary relief for a sizeable minority of sufferers.