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Comment by abakker | Hacker News Reader

FWIW, having been exposed/infected with Lyme disease 3 times, any vaccine would be welcome. Really. I can't stress that enough.

Due to a variety of factors, including deer overpopulation(1), the Lyme disease infection rate in Deer Ticks in New England is ridiculously high. While I was undergoing treatment for the 3rd time, my doctor indicated that probably 25% of ticks in that region carry the disease.

I'd be all for a vaccine. It would be even better if we could vaccinate the deer agains being hosts somehow...maybe in a salt lick?

(1) http://www.ct.gov/caes/lib/caes/documents/publications/fact_...

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Eh, I feel like its not so bad after the first few times. I did get bell's palsy last time, and I walked around looking like a stroke victim for a bit, but not that bad all in all.

Didn't get that all the way, but started to. Ah the joys of liking to hike and work in the woods...

Though it is conceivable that the same behavior will get me infected again now that I live in SF instead of CT, the much lower deer population has meant that I've not had a single tick bite in 3 years since living here. The one weekend I went back to visit my mom, I got one helping her clean up fallen tree branches in the lawn whilst being observed by a herd of deer.

I'd think you'd have developed an immunity on your own?

If only it worked that way... sadly, we don't do that with Lyme, which is pretty damn hard to kill.

I didn't believe you but here's one article that basically agrees with you http://m.cid.oxfordjournals.org/content/45/8/1032.full

You do realize you can just ask your doctor for an acne antibiotics prescription and be immune to Lyme disease, right? Doctors routinely do this for people who work in dangerous areas for Lyme disease, etc..

I didn't realize this. Somehow, this doesn't seem like a good idea to basically be on Doxycycline forever...

Most antibiotics are not effective agains Lyme, since it is a spirochete, and can end up in your spinal fluid.

Last time I had Lyme, I took Doxycycline for 6 weeks. that drug is pretty damn awful to take all the time.

Can you show any data that doctors are prophylactically prescribing antibiotics to people for Lyme? If that is the case, I'd assume that "living in connecticut" is a sufficient risk factor?

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