Lyme Disease vaccination ?

[Nik]

IIRC, a effective Lyme Disease vaccination may be available within 5 yrs.
IMHO, as changing weather & climate seem to be pushing Lyme's range into previously too-cool areas with new carriers / vectors, this needs watching...

The same argument would apply to many sub-tropical problems that are venturing into 'temperate' zones,,,
Stay Safe, Stay Well.

[Tugaloo]

https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/lyme-disease/diagnosis-treatment/drc-20374655

I was bitten by a tick that gave me Lyme disease. A simple shot followed by a regime of antibiotics at the hospital cured it. However, it wasn't that simple.

To avoid fire running through your veins, make certain whoever will stick you with the antibiotic has diluted it. In my case, the nurse didn't and as the first shot didn't work; I needed a second.
This time, I told the nurse, you make damn sure you dilute it with a saline solute.. The second jab was absolutely painless as the first should have been.

Nix, you seem to dote on needle sticks as the cure for everything is there a reason why?

[Nik]

Antibiotics have been absurdly over-used.
Remember how it was 'shovelled' into cows, pigs etc to help fatten them ?
And so-freely prescribed ?
Now, too many 'bugs' are poly-resistant. Too few antibiotics remain against those to be confident. Resistance grows faster than new antibiotics are developed. Phage use is limited by decades of neglect. Also, there are numerous viruses for which a simple vaccination prevents need for heroic hospital treatment.

I grew up amidst epidemic after epidemic of childhood diseases. My parents had had MilSpec vaccines, I acquired some immunities from Mum, got every available vaccination. Thus, I avoided the avoidable 'dire diseases' which beset my generally un-vaccinated primary school friends and their families. Many kids lost a parent or gran, some were orphaned. Certainly, those 'galloping lurgies' emptied desk after desk after desk. The lucky lost a term or re-sat year. The unlucky had class-prayers and hymns chanted for their young souls...

There was also the issue that eg Rubella, so easily transmitted, damaged the un-born, leaving them cruelly crippled, blind, deaf, retarded...

And Polio. Let's not forget those grim Polio wards' ranks of 'Iron Lungs'...

In secondary school, I got my BCG. It suppurated so badly, I was on 'dry dressing, no contact sport, no swimming' for six months. Yes, I'd had enough immunity from Mum that 'challenge' flared and faded overnight so, despite my protests I was wrongly flagged as 'no reaction', given full dose. My arm's eruption was so dramatic that my brother was checked daily, his 'flare and fade' noted.

Then our family repeatedly drove / camped across Europe to Greece. So, we had a ruddy zoo of vaccinations. Including, finally, almost the last 'civilian' smallpox course before that horror was totally extirpated from its redoubts in purblind tribal areas of Turkey etc...

Happens it saved our holiday, as a Turkish out-break of 'Could It Be ??' closed SE Europe's borders to all un-vaccinated until repeated tests proved the outbreak was 'merely' severe chickenpox...


FWIW, it's just four years since I lost my dear wife to hospital-acquired, poly-resistant pneumonia. As they said, if she'd not had the 'decadal' vaccination, first bout would have killed her. But, that pneumonia and the toxic meds together weakened her enough that a second poly-resistant strain compounded her other problems and broke her...

[Tugaloo]

The shot I was given for Lyme disease was in the mid-1990s. The only other antibiotic I've been given was when I had an abscess tooth a very long time ago.

Antibiotics are given at the feed lots to avoid diseases. Steroids used to be given to food animals to add weight.. Here, it is becoming common place to see labels starting no antibiotics etc.
The medical origin of the word antibiotic are anti and bios; in short, against life in both Greek and Latin..

Unfortunately the COVID vaccines don't meet your "which a simple vaccination prevents need for heroic hospital treatment." Currently in the US, the COVID vaccination is causing many adverse reactions. IMO, fast tracking vaccines isn't always wise.

Pfizer asked the Food and Drug Administration on Tuesday to authorize emergency use of the experimental pill, which has been shown to significantly cut the rate of hospitalizations and deaths among people with coronavirus infections.

https://www.rochesterfirst.com/news/pfizer-u-s-ink-5-29b-deal-for-possible-covid-19-treatment/

Again, we go right back to fast tracking or perhaps, beta testing on humans..

There was a lot of resistance to the Salk Vaccine. The reason was well founded; Cutter Laboratory

In April 1955 more than 200 000 children in five Western and mid-Western USA states received a polio vaccine in which the process of inactivating the live virus proved to be defective. Within days there were reports of paralysis and within a month the first mass vaccination programme against polio had to be abandoned. Subsequent investigations revealed that the vaccine, manufactured by the California-based family firm of Cutter Laboratories, had caused 40 000 cases of polio, leaving 200 children with varying degrees of paralysis and killing 10.

From https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1383764/ quoted from the Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine.

When I was in the Military, I was thoroughly needled for many things.

I'm sorry for your loss.

[Nik]

Kath was truly 'my better two-thirds'. She was super-sassy, near-eidetic, easily qualified for MENSA but, quoting Marx (Groucho), did not join. I was technical-minded, with a stubborn streak that made me good at problem solving, whether it took a 'quick fix' or months of work. We sorta 'tag-teamed' the world, got thirty years, a month and a day of 'Love & Cherish', defying our families' fears that we wouldn't last six months...

[1way]

I have a friend whose adult daughter has struggled with the effects of Lymes disease fo a long time. They’ve tried everything they can think of, but she seems to be losing the fight. Anybody have a suggestion or magic potion that may help? Thanks
1way

[Tugaloo]

Kath was truly 'my better two-thirds'. She was super-sassy, near-eidetic, easily qualified for MENSA but, quoting Marx (Groucho), did not join. I was technical-minded, with a stubborn streak that made me good at problem solving, whether it took a 'quick fix' or months of work. We sorta 'tag-teamed' the world, got thirty years, a month and a day of 'Love & Cherish', defying our families' fears that we wouldn't last six months...

Before retirement, both my wife and I were design engineers in the mechanical sector. She is highly detail oriented, an excellent 3D modeler. OTOH, she is artistic, sews totes at church for under privilege kids, and is quite good with firearms.
I'm quite capable with tolerance analysis or making components go together and respect manufacturer's (machining) and assembly's capabilities. In today's world, 3D modeling, stress analysis, etc. are part of most engineers required skill sets.
We both are highly stubborn; however, we learned to discuss matters.

Same as you and Kath and us, as Forrest Gump said so well "like peas and carrots."

So I understand your loss and the feeling of emptiness it creates.. My maternal grandmother lost her husband during the Great Depression. She raised 3 kids during that time. Once or maybe more, she said "when you had the best, you aren't interested in the rest." It took me many years and a failed first marriage to comprehend what she said. You and I both understand it and you suffered through it.

1way,
The only cure I'm aware of is a massive dose of antibiotics.