Hacker News Reader

The New York Times wrote an article about the Lyme disease vaccine in 1999. It gives a bit of a different perspective. The long and short of it is, it seemed too new and too much of a pain, and a lot of people didn't see a benefit due to the presence of other tick-borne diseases that necessitated the same checks for ticks even with the vaccine.

http://www.nytimes.com/1999/06/13/nyregion/lukewarm-response...

View on HN

An interesting feature of lyme disease specifically (unlike some other tick-borne diseases) is that tick checks are very effective, because it doesn't migrate from the tick to the human bloodstream in sufficient quantities to produce infection until around 36-48 hours after attachment.

(Source: http://www.cdc.gov/lyme/transmission/)

Hmm, so I wonder if short term tick exposure actually functions as a rudimentary vaccine then? It would expose your immune system to the bacteria in very small quantities?

Reply on news.ycombinator.com