Lyme disease: a vaccine soon?

ALMOST 35% of French people say they have never heard of it.

However, Lyme disease affected 60,033 people in 2020 (latest known figure) and its consequences are sufficiently disabling to have prompted the government to launch, eight years ago, a national plan to combat the subject.

Due to the bite of a tick infected with bacteria, this condition can become chronic or even lead to severe pathologies such as meningitis or diseases similar to multiple sclerosis, for example.

Unfortunately, it is very difficult to diagnose. It does not always cause the red skin spots – called erythema migrans – by which it is recognized. And its other symptoms – fatigue, fever, joint and muscle pain – can easily go unnoticed or be associated with other diseases. Thus, it is not uncommon for victims to wander from one practitioner to another waiting for a diagnosis. And once the latter is finally made, joint or neurological complications have often already declared themselves.

Encouraging results

A Nantes start-up, Valneva, is working on a vaccine with the support of the American laboratory Pfizer. Called VLA15, it has reached phase 3 of tests involving clinical trials on thousands of patients. Its results are already very encouraging, as evidenced by a study * published in the prestigious international scientific journal The Lancet . Its authors emphasize the safety and efficacy of the vaccine. If all goes well, the product could reach the market in 2026.

This is excellent news, because Lyme disease is spreading, encouraged by climate change. In 2011, Public Health France recorded 25,000 cases. In 2018, there was a peak of 68,530 cases. Ticks hibernate from November to March, but due to milder winters, their period of activity is lengthening and may eventually extend to the whole year. In 2022, the seventh meeting of the plan approved the creation of a working group (Aviesan) to accelerate research, while emphasizing the need for better monitoring of cases.

* The Lancet Infectious Diseases September 2024.

If in doubt, consult the reference centers for tick-borne diseases.