Hacker News Reader

Comment by alt227 | Hacker News Reader

Sounds about the same as needing to take Malaria pills when going near the equator.

I live in an hot spot of tick borne Lyme disease (had Lyme once so far) so I would have to take these constantly as I'm constantly outside and I'm not hiking or in the woods. Ticks are everywhere here and with the lack of snow this winter they were active during the winter too.

Right, but the average person would go on a trip requiring these pills very, very sporadically. Imagine going camping or hiking irregularly throughout the year but needing to take these pills 20+ times? Seems crazy to me when there was an effective vaccine at one point.

Ticks carry a lot more than Lyme though, and many of the diseases they carry can have long-term or life-long effects. Even with a Lyme vaccine I think it'd be worth it to take these if you're gonna be in a tick-heavy area.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Powassan_virus https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rocky_Mountain_spotted_fever https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tularemia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Babesiosis https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alpha-gal_syndrome

> Right, but the average person would go on a trip requiring these pills very, very sporadically. Imagine going camping or hiking irregularly throughout the year but needing to take these pills 20+ times?

Couldn't you just take it a few days before you go camping or hiking each time?

Reply on news.ycombinator.com