Lyme Disease

What some of you may not be aware of is that their is a vaccine that has been made and tested, and found to be effective against Lyme disease.

The Lyme disease vaccine is called LYMErix and is made by TM SmithKline Beecham Pharmaceuticals.  It is available to residents of the USA aged 15 to 70 years.

Clinical trials have been fruitful and the side effects rather few, and I will describe those side effects in another post to come.

This post is to describe the results and recommendations made in relation to this Lyme disease vaccine, by a document appearing on the CDC web site (originally posted in 1999).

Firstly, the Lyme disease vaccine requires you to have three vaccinations with LYMErix:

With 2 vaccinations you have a 49% chance of being protected against the Lyme disease YOU HAVE ALREADY CAUGHT; with 3 vaccinations that climbs to 76% chance that the Lyme disease YOU HAVE ALREADY CAUGHT will be defeated.

Although no stats are obviously apparent, the value of the Lyme disease vaccine for non-infected persons is determined by the density of  Lyme disease carrying ticks in the environment  and the amount of contact the person is likely to have in the area where those ticks are.   The medical opinion of that document is one of cost analysis to a large degree, but I would argue that the human suffering of those who do become infected, warrants a wider group of people having access to the vaccine than would otherwise be recommended medically speaking.

Specifically these learned people argue that the vaccine is NOT recommended for those in low risk groups, whereas this should be for the person to decide.  As Katelyn, the previous author of LymeAdvocate.com found, the family dog was considered to have negligible risk of catching Lyme disease, because it was a house dog, not an outdoors dog.  Well, the dog went outside, got bitten by a lyme carrying tick, and later died.  Although I am not talking about pets on this page as such, the juxtaposition of pet dog and human is very worthwhile mentioning and pointing out, for the same goes for people in low risk groups – they are still open to becoming infected by Lyme disease infected ticks.

 What is Lyme Disease?

Lyme disease – sometimes abbreviated to Lyme disease – is an animal disease which can be transferred to humans by ticks. Lyme disease is actually a bacteria, named Borrelia burgdorferi, and there are four varieties of the Borrelia burgforferi bacteria which were identified in the laboratory. To spell that out a bit more, there are actually four varieties of Lyme disease that humans can get!

How Common is Lyme Disease?

Since being recognised in the mid 1970′s, Lyme disease has become the most commonly identified tick-borne disease to infect humans across the globe.

Where can you catch Lyme Disease?

Lyme disease has been recorded in each continent of the earth (except Antarctica) in spite of the fact that uncertainty remains as to whether Lyme disease occurs south of the equator, such as in Australia.

How is Lyme Disease Spread?

Short and sweet, Lyme disease is transferred to humans, from animals, by ticks. Any tick that feeds on an animal infected with Lyme disease – whether the tick be laraval, nymphal or adult – will then carry the bacteria, and spread the bacteria to any host it decides to feed upon, whether animal or human. The common animal host for the ticks are small and warm blooded creatures, such as a mouse, though deer infected with Lyme disease have also been known to pass the infection on to humans by tick as well.

Can any tick spread Lyme Disease?

Not all ticks are the same when it comes to being responsible for spreading Lyme disease onto humans. In the northern hemisphere, there are only four species of ticks known to pass lyme disease on to humans: Ixodes scapularis and Ixodes pacificus in the United States, Ixodes ricinus in western Europe, and Ixodes persulcatus in eastern Europe and Asia. No Ixode specie lives in Australia, so Australia is free of Lyme disease for the most part.

As of 20th October, 2010, Katelyn has handed the reigns of this lyme disease web site over, as she feels she would just like to put this part of her life behind her, now that she has essentially recovered.

Katelyn’s original content wil be kept, and can always be found via entries occuring before the 20th October, 2010.  Katelyn’s information is comforting reading that gives hope  for anyone who knows someone with Lyme disease, or who has come down with Lyme disease at some point in their life.  Katelyn’s info is the down to earth, honest reactions, coping skills etc, that she, as a Lyme disease sufferer, wrote about and experienced first hand.

I, on the other hand,  my interest is largely about preserving a web site that documented the human suffering lyme disease creates and updating it with useful and newer information, and my name is Donald.

So, I thought I’d give everyone an update on where I am with the whole Lyme disease deal. After three years and two separate Lyme disease infections, I feel pretty close to myself again. I have gone from having one pain free day a month to two or three painful days, which makes a huge difference.

Thank you for visiting Www.LymeAdvocate.Com
Author:  Katelyn, of Cecil County, a victim of Lyme Disease

I do still have to really be careful when balancing checkbooks or setting up appointments. Figuring out what time I need to leave to get there and back again is oddly hard. I’m hoping I still improve, since I used to be the geek who got 99.2 in Algebra on her report card and now seem to have trouble with some basic math skills!
The biggest change is that I don’t plan to garden any more. I was a passionate gardener and a garden writer for several years. It is a hard decision, but turning the entire yard into a mown expanse is the best way to keep the ticks and all the wonderful little critters carrying them in the woods. I also will be adding more nematodes to the lawn to help stop new baby ticks from hatching.

I also make sure that my last stray kitty gets flea and tick drops every month to be sure she doesn’t bring any deer ticks up near the house. (I think I’ve mentioned the 19 cats and the kittens that were here when I moved in. They were covered in ticks from playing in the woods. I found homes for everyone but this little girl. She won’t be an indoor only cat, so she has a heated cat house on my porch to keep her warm.)

The important thing is that it took a long time, several sets of blood tests, several sets of antibiotics and bottles of Vitamin D, but I did finally get a lot better. So, if you are feeling like you’ll never get better a few months after you first got Lyme, please don’t give up. Go back to your doctor and ask to be tested for Lyme again because you may have gotten a second case. Ask to be tested for vitamin deficiencies. And keep believing you will get better. One day, when you least expect it, my prayer is that you wake up, get ready for the day and find yourself singing, “I feel good! I knew that I would now…” at the top of your lungs.

So, I have now discovered three different articles in farm journals by people who have free roaming chickens, turkeys, ducks and/or guineas and they all say the same thing. Those little birds love to eat ticks and they have many fewer ticks in their yards than their neighbors do. Hmm. If Avian Flu wasn’t a possible concern, I’d say that Cecil County needs to institute a chicken or guinea hen release program.

If that won’t work, maybe one of the other organic tick control methods researchers are working on will control the population around here. The USDA has an older report on some different methods being researched that makes for interesting reading. I’ve got some nematodes to spread in my yard and have that chore on this week’s to do list.

That’s right, folks. According to my doctor, it wasn’t a flare up, but an actual new infection because the lab work showed two different results – one for an active infection and one for a previous one. Since I’ve been taking every possible precaution, I’m a bit frustrated right now! The good news is that it was the milder form of Lyme as opposed to the form I had before. The bad news? It’s Lyme Disease.

So, now, although I finished the antibiotics, I feel like I have Mono and will probably feel that way for about six months on top of everything that’s still wrong from the first bout. Ick. Those guys in the country songs that mowed down paradise to put up a parking lot?  They probably had Lyme Disease and then got it again! I’d like to do that to all the nice green stuff around me, too.

Anyone else get two separate bouts with Lyme Disease  back to back or am I just special?

So, back in October, I went in for more tests because my bones were hurting so bad that I could barely walk. I felt like I had aged thirty years in one. My doctor was about out of ideas when she decided to test for Vitamin D. My levels came back ridiculously low. I don’t know if they were depleted from the actual Lyme Disease or just from being outside less in the summer, but I had levels in the teens instead of the forties.
When the test results came back, my doctor prescribed 2 Vitamin D supplements a day. (Not the plus calcium kind.) I didn’t end up pain free, but I am much better. I went from being barely mobile 24/7 to having a few joint pain flareups a week by the end of January. If  you start getting bone pain on top of the joint pain, don’t just think it is in your mind or let your doctor dismiss it as something unimportant. Ask for tests and keep asking until the doctor finds out what is wrong.

 I was planning to write this last week, but I was too sad. Lily, my mom’s little Yorkie, who was only 8 years old, died on Sunday from kidney failure.

My mom always made sure the dogs had a good flea and tick preventative and Lily was usually an indoor dog, but she did run off a few times last summer and there are fields nearby. Still, it wasn’t very frequent and no one thought to test for Lyme’s when she seemed sore because we thought the bigger dogs stepped on her. When she acted lethargic and sick a few weeks ago, my mom took her to the vet, who drew blood and ran tests. She said Lily had kidney failure and one of the things that caused it was Lyme disease. She went back and ran a Lyme’s test and, sure enough, Lily had Lyme disease.

She gave her three days to live and said she didn’t seem in pain, so my mom went home with an IV bag, a broken heart and her little dog. Lily actually lived two more weeks because, despite her tiny size, she was a spunky, feisty creature. We all said goodbye, but we are so sad that she died so young.

Please, please don’t just depend on your expensive flea and tick preventative to keep your dog safe, even if it rarely leaves the house. The bigger dogs were vaccinated against Lyme disease, but no one thought to vaccinate a small dog who spent most of its time indoors.

We love you Lily.

I was watching the first episode of the  third season for Ugly Betty last night because it is supposed to be more like the original season, which I loved. I’m not sure about that, but I’m glad I watched The Manhattan Project because Betty confronted a former school enemy (Kimmey, played by Lyndsay Lohan) to patch up a fight that ended up with her dad being fired and Kimmey listed a bunch of stuff that was going on in her life and said she thought she had Lyme.

I’m always happy to see a mention of Lyme disease in prime time television, even if it is in a slightly silly context, because it raises awareness.
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It never fails. I’m feeling great, so I agree to work a few days and take on an extra freelance project to boot. By the end of the week, the joint pain and nausea are just bugging me so bad. Why don’t I learn I can’t do that stuff like I used to? It just is someone else’s normal work week and it seems like I should be able to, but not happening.

Is this normal for Lyme?