This message sent from the Lyme Disease Association of Southeastern Pennsylvania by Harvey L. Kliman ====================================================Next
Regular Meeting - Wednesday, November 19, 2008 7-9 PM at SPECIAL LOCATION: The Genesis Building Lower Level at the corner of Union and State Streets in downtown Kennett Square. Map at http://www.lymepa.org/html/kennett_map_zoomed_in.html
Doug Fearn, President of LDASEPA, will present an update on ``The War on Lyme Patients'' - issues facing patients and doctors and the controversy over the Infectious Diseases Society of America restrictive guidelines
Below is an abstract and link to the original 2005 article describing a novel way to reduce the incidence of Lyme disease - give small rodents and mice an oral anti-Lyme-spirochete vaccine to kill the disease before it can spread to ticks and then to us. Even less than 100% effectiveness would make a major reduction in the population of infected ticks and make us and our pets safer. Although it would take some time to get to the market if successful, it could reduce the risk of Lyme disease without endangering people like the human vaccine. One of the authors, Dustin Brisson, Ph.D., spoke recently at an LDASEPA monthly meeting and continues to be the pioneer in this approach. In this article, "Oral vaccine that breaks the transmission cycle of the Lyme disease spirochete can be delivered via bait" (click this link to access the article) (http://www.dsf.health.state.pa.us/health/lib/health/epidemiology/Gomes-Solecki2006.pdf) , the authors describe their oral-bait-delivered LD vaccine which protects mice from B. burgdorferi.
Abstract
Human Lyme disease risk is directly proportional to the density of Ixodes scapularis ticks infected with Borrelia burgdorferi. Reducing Lyme disease incidence can be pursued on two distinct avenues: reducing the density of ticks or reducing the infection prevalence in ticks. Reducing tick density requires either the deer culling or broad insecticide application, neither of which are supported by the public. Reducing infection prevalence in ticks can be accomplished by breaking the natural cycle of the bacteria between small vertebrates and ticks. We propose vaccinating the natural reservoirs of B. burgdorferi using an orally-delivered OspA vaccine. This vaccine prevents the transmission of B. burgdorferi from ticks to animals as well as from previously infected animals to ticks. Our preliminary field trials demonstrate the efficacy of this vaccine in reducing the proportion of infected ticks, and thus human Lyme disease risk, in a highly endemic northeastern forest. We are still working on our email system, so to continue receiving notices from LDASEPA please go to our email signup page at the link below, so we can move to a better system. Thanks, Harvey