The US had a Lyme disease vaccine decades ago – but the CDC, lawsuits, and conspiracy theories derailed it
Since 1998, confirmed Lyme disease cases in the US have risen roughly 40%.
GlaxoSmithKline developed a Lyme vaccine in the 1990s. It went off the market by the early 2000s.
A new anti-Lyme injection (not a vaccine) is coming. But it could take years to be fully approved.
Lyme disease, transmitted by deer ticks and characterized by a hallmark bullseye rash, is an ever-present threat for hikers, hunters, and pet owners. If left untreated, it can cause temporary facial paralysis, shooting pain, arthritis, and speech and memory problems, according to the Mayo Clinic.
Lyme was once considered a regional concern isolated to the Northeast, but climate change has broadened its territory to 44 states. Rising temperatures have expanded ticks' habitats, studies show, and shorter winters may allow ticks to be active for longer periods during the year.
In 1998, fewer than 17,000 Lyme disease cases were confirmed in the US. Two decades later, that yearly count has increased roughly 40%, with between 20,000 and 30,000 cases reported to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The number of estimated yearly cases, meanwhile, has ballooned to 476,000 people diagnosed and treated for Lyme disease, according to the CDC. (That includes people presumed to have the disease and treated without an official diagnosis.)
But the US had a Lyme vaccine more than 20 years ago: a shot called LYMErix. It seemed to ward off the disease among the small group of Americans who received it – until a perfect storm of dismissive public-health experts, conspiracy theories, a class-action lawsuit, and a lack of consumer demand drove it off the market.
GlaxoSmithKline developed a safe, effective Lyme vaccine decades ago
Pharmaceutical giant GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), known as SmithKline Beecham until a 2000 merger, developed LYMErix in the 1990s. The Food and Drug Administration approved the shot in 1998.
Three deer in a grassy field in Iowa looking towards the camera
Deer, which are common hosts for Lyme disease-carrying ticks, stand in a field in Winterset, Iowa, on October 10, 2019.
Joe Raedle/Getty Images
The three-dose vaccine worked by stimulating disease-fighting antibodies in human blood. If a black-legged tick bit a vaccinated person, the antibodies attacked the Borrelia burgdorferi bacteria in the tick's gut, preventing it from being transmitted to the human host.
The vaccine was about 75% effective at preventing Lyme disease after three doses in clinical trials.
But a CDC committee thought the vaccine was unnecessary
Almost as soon as it was approved, though, LYMErix developed a reputation problem.
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https://www.businessinsider.com/lyme-disease-vaccine-what-happened-lawsuits-conspiracy-theories-2021-11
The Rise and Fall of the Lyme Disease Vaccines: A Cautionary Tale for Risk Interventions in American Medicine and Public Health
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/j.1468-0009.2012.00663.x