One injection a long season are fully protected against Lyme. Scientists have tested the drug on mice and with remarkably good results: the animals were 100 percent protected against the bacterium that causes Lyme disease.
The US program, BBC News writes about the investigation, whose results were presented at a meeting on infectious diseases in San Diego.
"Better than a vaccine '
"It is not a vaccine, it even has a lot of advantages over a vaccine," said one of the researchers at NBC News. "A vaccine consists of small pieces of the bacteria or virus you want to fight and your body should then make antibodies against it.
" The drug has now been developed, is the antibody itself. Consequently no ill makers to be injected. According to the researchers, it is safe and works immediately. "Once you get the shot, you are fully protected."
But if the drug comes on the market, then there is also a downside: risk for Lyme disease would be given every year, as is now happening with the flu shot.
The next step in the research is that the drug is tested on humans. There, researchers will start next year.
25 000 Dutch
Earlier, there once was a vaccine against Lyme on the market, but it was called back because the company behind it was sued by several people because they said to have become ill from the drug. Now, there is little that works against the disease.
In the Netherlands, every year around 25,000 people get Lyme disease, sometimes with serious consequences. Some of the patients have symptoms such as flu symptoms that will not go away and joint or nerve pain.
RTL News / © Reuters
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