Pfizer announced the major investigation yesterday, US media writes. There is currently no vaccine against Lyme disease on the market. Twenty years ago there was in the United States, but that vaccine had so many side effects that it was withdrawn from the market.
Three vaccinations
According to Pfizer, which made the vaccine together with the French Valneva, it would be a drug that has to be administered three times.
According to NBC News, the pharmaceutical company is looking for thousands of test subjects who want to try the drug. If all goes well, Pfizer hopes to file an application for approval of the vaccine with the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) by 2025.
In the Netherlands, Amsterdam UMC is involved in the study. The university hospital writes online that it is looking for test subjects who ‘have had one or more tick bites every year in the past and expect this again in the coming year’. Interested subjects will be approached next month.
After tick bite
You can contract Lyme disease after a tick bite. The risk of this is greatest in Drenthe, the National Institute for Public Health and the Environment (RIVM) concluded earlier this year.
About 1 in 5 ticks carry Lyme disease, a disease that can manifest itself in joint, skin, nerve or heart complaints.
About 27,000 people get Lyme disease every year. In most cases, Lyme disappears after treatment with antibiotics, they recover completely, but some continue to struggle with the complaints for a long time.