Notes from our crew: Why isn’t there a human vaccine for Lyme disease?

This post is prepared by Zoe Quinn, a volunteer undergraduate researcher.

While there are plenty of preventative treatments like vaccines for our furry friends, you may be asking yourself why there are not more options for yourself. The current available methods for human prevention include reducing exposure to ticks or treatment after a suspected tick bite. What about a vaccine? In fact, in 1998 there used to be a Lyme vaccine called LYMErix. Since then, this product has been pulled from the market due to reports of adverse reactions which resulted in a lawsuit and a large decrease in vaccine sales. Despite the claims of adverse reactions, the FDA determined that there was no causative association between the vaccine and the reactions. Fortunately, there is a new vaccine called VLA15 that has been created by a company called Valneva. It’s currently being tested and interim Phase 2 data should be expected mid-2020!

Read more about this topic through the National Library of Medicine:

Nigrovic, L. E., & Thompson, K. M. (2006). The Lyme vaccine: a cautionary tale. Epidemiology & Infection, 135(1), 1–8. doi: 10.1017/s0950268806007096

See Valneva’s website for updates about VLA15