What is Lyme disease? Black-legged ticks, also called deer ticks, carry Lyme-causing bacteria. The infection initially causes fatigue, fever and joint pain.
Researchers are seeking thousands of volunteers in the U.S. and Europe to test the first potential vaccine against Lyme disease in 20 years -- in hopes of better fighting the tick-borne threat.
"There wasn't such a recognition, I think, of the severity of Lyme disease" and how many people it affects the last time around, Pfizer vaccine chief Annaliesa Anderson told The Associated Press. Exactly how often Lyme disease strikes isn't clear. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention cites insurance records suggesting 476,000 people are treated for Lyme in the U.S. each year. Pfizer's Anderson put Europe's yearly infections at about 130,000.
How? It targets an "outer surface protein" of the Lyme bacterium called OspA that's present in the tick's gut. It's estimated a tick must feed on someone for about 36 hours before the bacteria spreads to its victim. That delay gives time for antibodies the tick ingests from a vaccinated person's blood to attack the germs right at the source.
"We're really looking at something that's a seasonal vaccine," Anderson said, so people have high antibody levels during the months when ticks are most active.Volunteers can be as young as 5 and should be at high risk because they spend a lot of time in tick-infested areas, such as hikers, campers and hunters, said Dr. Alan Kivitz who heads one of the study sites at Altoona Center for Clinical Research in Duncansville, Pennsylvania.
While the new Pfizer-Valneva vaccine also targets the OspA protein, it's engineered somewhat differently than its predecessor and also targets six Lyme strains in the U.S. and Europe instead of just one.
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