new lymes vaccine

A NEW LYMES VACCINE

npr article on lymes vaccine

we lived at the country n near austin for 17 years
i dont remember ever getting a tick on my body
there were lots of deer who bedded in our pastures
there were lots of mice running around
some say the fire ants kept the tick population down
i guess thats one good thing the fire ants did

growing up we were always getting covered with ticks
especially those little tiny ones we called seed ticks
they were notorious for getting in the wrong places

i would say that redbugs were more of a nuisance than ticks
since they would make you itch like crazy
we had those at the country n just ask my wife she
they loved her

it use to be that you never heard of rocky mountain spotted fever or lymes disease in the south
it seemed to be in the rocky mountain areas and in the northeast area
i dont remember hearing about it growing up
but
later when i began practicing medicine you had to keep those two diseases on your radar
since people traveled to those areas frequently 
and
eventually those ticks that carried those diseases also wandered down into the upper south

the cases i saw were usually later in the disease process when its harder to recognize and to diagnose 

the good part is that if you catch it early both are easily treated
if you miss the diagnosis rocky mountain spotted fever it can be fatal
lymes can be debilitating

now there are blood tests to make the diagnosis
treatment is easy
if you catch it early

a few times i just empirically  treated folks with antibiotics and later since it took a while at that time to get the labs back i would find out they were positive

the first case of rmsf or rocky mountain spotted fever i saw was in training at the childrens hospital
the patent later died 
it left an impression on me

i read once that a well known singer was diagnosed with alzheimers disease
later he was discovered to have lymes disease
when he was treated with antibiotics his memory improved
he stopped his alzheimers meds

the symptoms look so similar to what you see with long covid
you have fever chills headache body aches and a bulls eye rash
later the symptoms become more long covid like
fatigue myalgia joint pain facial paralysis irregular heart rate peripheral neuropathy inflammation in different parts of the body like the eye and mental fogginess

sometimes it takes a suspicion by the doctor to diagnose it
you have to keep it in the back of your head

what i did in the summer was to be on the look out for potential tick borne illnesses like lymes and rocky mountain spotted fever and tularemia

sometimes if the history was real suspicious i would treat until my labs came back
it also helped to repeat the labs more than once

lymes is carried by the deer tick

i dont remember diagnosing lymes in anyone but i did diagnose the other two 
a few dollars prescription of antibiotics if treated early treats these tick borne illnesses

now there is a new vaccine against lymes that is in clinical trials
if it gets approved we may be able to prevent this debilitating disease lymes disease

there is also a monoclonal antibody being developed that can be used for treatment

the hard part is recognizing the symptoms could be lymes and diagnosing it
the treatment is easy

be careful this summer in tick prone areas  especially if you travel
maybe when the vaccine becomes available if you are in lymes risk situations a lot then you might consider getting the vaccine

maybe the fire ants would work in your area
i wonder if those crazy ants eat ticks

the organicgreen doctor