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Lyme disease immunity lasts for years: Previous study
"The University of Pennsylvania researchers also found that strain-specific Lyme disease can cause lasting immunity for years. Once a person is infected, they can have immunity to the specific strain for six to nine years.
The findings don’t suggest that a person infected is now safe to venture out to Lyme disease-ridden areas – there are at least 16 different strains of Lyme disease reported, so another strain can still infect you.
The study does reveal, however, how the immune system recognizes and builds defense against a pathogen, which could help in developing a possible vaccination in the future.
Research lead Dustin Brisson said, “The point of the paper published in the New England Journal of Medicine was to see if there is evidence that these recurrent infections were in fact caused by subsequent tick bites and not by a relapse of the original infection.
That study overwhelmingly confirmed that they were new infections; only one patient was infected by the same strain multiple times. In the present study, we wanted to see if so few patients were infected by the same strain multiple times because they were protected against subsequent infections with the same strain.”
“If you infect a mouse with one strain and then clear it with antibiotics, it can’t be infected again with the same strain, but can be with a different strain.
But mice only live for a year or so. No one had explored if immunity persists over the course of many years. If you could make a vaccine that covers several of these strains, you could substantially reduce the probability of infection in vaccinated people.
The vaccine could last several years, perhaps requiring a booster once every several years,” Brisson concluded.
Further research is necessary to determine whether being infected and generating an immune response against one strain may offer protection against other strains as well."
-------------------- --Lymetutu-- Opinions, not medical advice! Posts: 96223 | From Texas | Registered: Feb 2001
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