A local doctor’s office is looking for people to be part of a Lyme vaccine trial.
They reached out to Channel 11 after a recent story about the push for more insurance coverage for Lyme disease testing.
Sarah Englert was part of a clinical trial for a vaccine for Lyme disease that Preferred Primary Care Physicians were part of. There are no Lyme vaccines for humans on the market.
“I take my puppy to the vet and they offer me the Lyme vaccine for my puppy and I’m like, ‘Well, what do you mean? My kids didn’t get that but my dog can get it?’ It sort of blew my mind,” Sarah told us.
This trial focused on people with a higher potential for exposure.
“You don’t have to really be a hiker or a hunter in Pittsburgh to be exposed to Lyme,” said Dr. Shari Rozen, MD, with Preferred Primary Care Physicians. “If you go in your backyard, if you have a pet, if you’re outside, there’s potential for exposure, so this is an endemic area for Lyme.”
400 people locally were part of the trial that started two years ago. They got either a Lyme vaccine or a placebo. Sarah says her family did not have any adverse reactions, just a slightly tender arm after the shot.
“Though it’s not FDA approved, again, there’s been lots of studies in hundreds of people, probably at this point thousands of people, looking at specifically safety,” said Dr. Rozen. “So we know it’s safe. We know it’s effective.”
The CDC says two companies are looking at the effectiveness of a Lyme disease vaccine. On its website, it says: “The CDC is conducting research to better understand what concerns healthcare providers and the public might have about any potential Lyme disease vaccine.” https://www.cdc.gov/lyme/about/lyme-disease-vaccine.html
Dr. Rozen says researchers are now looking at the dosage schedule: how much of the Lyme vaccine should people get and how often? That’s the next part of the trial that is about to start. Preferred Physicians are looking for 160 people to participate in it.
“I have family members who’ve had Lyme and symptoms that have been chronic,” said Sarah. “It concerns me because ticks are everywhere in our area Lyme is very prevalent in this area and I want a vaccine to become available again for myself and my kids.”
If you’d like to be part of the next phase of the Lyme vaccine trial, the document below explains how.
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