Summary of a Recent Article in
Ladies Home Journal
(from a Tracker School student on the Internet)
The recent issue of Lady's Home Journal just had an article on Lymes
(July 2001,
page 41).
According to the article, scientists have discovered that a
deer tick
bite deposits bacteria with several different coatings into your bloodstream;
which may be why the current vaccine, Lymerix, is effective in just 75% of
people. Even when it does work, its protectiveness is temporary. The FDA
has
investigated the risks of Lymerix, finding that not only is it imperfect in
effectiveness, but can cause long-lasting side effects, such as arthritis and
memory loss. So apparently these side effects are pretty well documented.
The Center for Disease Control continues to recommend the
vaccine to
those who live or work in wooded, bushy or grassy areas and are between 15
and 70, but exclude pregnant women. For women this is notable, for other
than intuition, there is a bit of a time lapse between conception and
confirmation of pregnancy; and no research on the effect if the vaccine is
taken shortly before conception.
Apparently the CDC considers it is an acceptable risk of side
effects to
take the vaccine. However, the side effects are not treatable with
antibiotics.
For information, call the Lyme Disease Foundation at
800-886-5963, or go
to www.lyme.org. The article doesn't say who is the funder for these two
information resources, so we don't know what the bias is for that
information.
The article advises removing the tick with blunt tweezers,
tugging gently
but firmly near the head; don't crush the body. Swab the bite area with an
antiseptic. This information says it takes two days for the insect to
transmit bacteria. |
