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Lyme disease vaccine trial moves forward, looking for participants in study

For people living with Lyme disease, the news of a possible vaccine is promising but comes with reservations.

HARTFORD, Conn. — A vaccine trial for Lyme disease is moving forward, now in phase three the Vaccine Against Lyme for Outdoor Recreationists also known as VALOR is seeking volunteers for the study. 

VALOR was manufactured by Pfizer and included work by researchers at Yale University. Stamford Health is participating in the study. The trial is blind to both doctors and participants.

Volunteers will be vaccinated prior to the closest Lyme disease season which runs from March to mid-May and mid-August through November. 

Participants will receive boosters for the next two Lyme disease seasons. Then after two years of observation, the blind will be lifted and if the vaccine is deemed safe and effective it could be considered for approval by the FDA. 

“Obviously we’re focused on safety and right now we feel pretty confident that this is a safe vaccine. We hope it will prove to be as effective as we would like,” said Dr. Michael Parry of Stamford Hospital. 

The vaccine works in a different way than most vaccines.

“When the tick feeds on you it sucks up a little bit of blood, that’s its meal. In that blood, after the vaccine, there will be antibodies and the antibodies attack the bacteria in the tick, which prevents the tick from infecting you with the bacteria,” said Parry. 

For people living with Lyme disease, the news of a possible vaccine is promising but comes with reservations.

“I’m excited to hear that the clinical trial has moved forward, but I have some reservations about this vaccine because ticks carry multiple pathogens and this vaccine from what I understand covers multiple species of Lyme, but it doesn’t talk about any of the coinfections that can mimic Lyme and have the same symptoms and leave you just as disabled,“ said Elena Zajac, from Cromwell who contracted Lyme at a young age. 

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Zajac also worries the possible vaccine would detour people from taking other precautions to prevent tick-borne illnesses, but doctors say they educate their patients on still being proactive. 

“We certainly don’t report that this vaccine to be a panacea for preventing all tick-borne diseases, it’s just for Lyme disease, and we haven’t proven this vaccine is going to work yet, we feel strongly that it will, but we don’t have proof and that is what the trial is all about,” said Parry. 

Lyme disease was named and discovered in Old Lyme in 1975. 

Click here to learn more about the vaccine trial and to see if you qualify to participate in the study.   

   

Jake Garcia is a multimedia journalist for FOX61 News. He can be reached at jgarcia@fox61.com. Follow him on FacebookX, and Instagram.

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