A vaccine against Lyme disease has been shown to be safe and effective in a clinical trial and could be available by 2025.
Tens of thousands of people in the US and Europe are diagnosed each year with Lyme disease, which is transmitted by tick bites and can cause lifelong health problems like joint and nerve pain if it isn鈥檛 treated early.
French company Valneva has developed a vaccine that works by stopping Lyme-causing bacteria in ticks from passing into people鈥檚 bloodstreams when the ticks bite. It does this by targeting a protein on the bacteria called outer surface protein A.
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The company has revealed the results of a clinical trial involving 572 adults in the US and Europe. It claims the vaccine was 82 to 96 per cent effective at stimulating immune protection against Lyme disease and caused no serious side effects. 鈥淭he results are very promising,鈥� says Maria Gomes-Solecki at the University of Tennessee.
The next steps will be to test the vaccine in children and larger numbers of adults, and to determine whether booster shots will be necessary to provide long-lasting immunity, says Thomas Lingelbach, CEO of聽Valneva. 鈥淲e hope the vaccine will be available within five years,鈥� he says.
Children are urgently in need of a vaccine because they are significantly more likely to get Lyme disease than adults, says Lingelbach. Research shows that children , making early treatment harder.
In the late 1990s, a Lyme disease vaccine that also targeted outer surface protein A became available, but it was discontinued after unfounded claims of serious side effects spread by anti-vaccination campaigners made people too scared to get it.
Gomes-Solecki hopes the new vaccine won鈥檛 experience the same fate if it is approved. 鈥淚n recent years, I do feel there has been a shift in public opinion because the need for a vaccine has increased given that Lyme disease keeps expanding into new geographic regions, and studies have been published supporting the safety of the original vaccine,鈥� she says.
