[pct-l] Lyme and big-bad drug companies (Was: Shots)

[Brick Robbins <brick@fastpack.com>]

At 07:22 AM 5/28/99 -0800, Randy Forsland wrote:

>Seriously, I don't personally think that any shots are necessary .
<snip>
>I would rather trust that technique than any vaccine that is currently being
>promoted (by some pretty extreme scare tactics no less) by the large drug
>companies.

I don't quite understand this line of reasoning to discourage getting the
vaccine. Lyme can have some prety extreme effects, so if the "large drug
company" just says "here is what lyme does, and here is a vaccine that does
a pretty good job of preventing it" then they could be accused of using
"scare tactics." (the efficacy rate has been shown to be about 80% so far.)
By all means remove the ticks if you find them, but I'd like that extra 80%
protection rate if I miss one.

For Tick/Lyme information reference
http://mayohealth.org/mayo/9808/htm/ticks.htm

SmithKline Beecham owns the Lyme vaccine and it is called Lymerix. For
reference about Lymerix from the FDA see
http://www.fda.gov/bbs/topics/NEWS/NEW00669.html

I also perceive an implication that since the vaccine is owned by a "large"
drug company it is somehow "bad". The problem with this line of thought is
that it takes a company with very deep pockets to be able to afford the
15millon odd dollars it takes to get a drug through FDA approval. The
process takes so much money because we, the American Public, have demanded
an extremely high level of safety and efficacy from our drugs. No "small"
companies can afford to go through the process (at least not without a
"big" partner footing the bill, and thereby buying the rights to the drug.)

The current daytime-teevee-talkshow anti-vaccination fad is really
troubling. In the next 10 years or so I fully expect an epidemic of some of
the older diseases we think we have under control. So many mothers are now
frightened of having their children vaccinated because some whacko on the
Oprah show says it is dangerous. I wonder how they'll feel if their child
dies of pertusis (anybody know what it's common name is? It used to be one
of the highest causes of childhood death before the development of a
vaccine/antibiotics. It is the "p" in the DPT  vaccine, and the number of
cased reported in the last 5 years has dramatically risen.) I was born just
after Dr Salk developed the Polio vaccine, but I'm old enough to remember
hospital wards full of kids in Iron Lungs. Vaccines are GOOD things. Sort
of like seat belts in cars.

On the up-side, Lyme is not that common along the PCT. It turns out that
one of our lizards out here has blood that is toxic to the germ that causes
it (B. burgdorferi), so if an infected tick bites the lizard, it is gets
cured. I recall reading that less than 5% of the ticks out here carry it.
Our western ticks are larger than the deer ticks that carry Lyme on the
east coast, so they are easier to spot and remove. If you find a tick, by
all means remove it instead of relying on the vaccine. That would be like
not avoiding a car wreck because you have a seat belt and an airbag.....

As far as other vaccines, medications I would carry, I would make sure your
tetanus is up to date, and I would stop by Mexico (an easy public transport
ride from San Diego) and by some Tinidazol(e), which is an antibiotic that
works much better on Giardia than Flagyl, the stuff they normally prescribe
here (but it is not FDA approved, so use at your own risk). It is not FDA
approved because it is a Cheap generic drug so no big-bad drug companies
could recover the $15million cost of getting it approved, since they
wouldn't own it. It is much cheaper than Flagyl too (about $2 per treatment
vs $60)

All IMHO, and YMMV.

Respectfully,
Brick
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