John: Summertime means more time
outdoors and that means more
chances for tick bites and the
risk of Lyme disease.
According to the centers for
disease control, as many as
476,000 people in the united
States contract Lyme disease
every year.
And climate change and our
encroachment into wilderness
areas means ticks and the Lyme
disease causing bacteria they
can carry are more common in
more places.
My guest is an immunology
professor at tufts university
medical school, is also
co-director of the tufts Lyme
disease initiative.
Doctor Hu, what does Lyme
disease do to us?
What are the symptoms and how
serious can it be?
Dr. Hu: Lyme disease typically
enters into your body after the
bite of a tick, and the bacteria
the spot of the bite and then
spread rapidly from there to
other skin sites, but can also
get to the brain, can get to the
heart and can get to the joints,
causing more severe disease.
John: How easily is it treated?
Dr. Hu: For most people,
antibiotics are pretty
effective, especially if you get
treated early.
There are a number of different
antibiotics that work very well
against Lyme disease.
There are small percentage of
people, probably somewhere in
the range of 10 to 15% who will
continue to have symptoms after
treatment for Lyme disease.
John: And have ticks been
spreading into more areas of the
country, and why is that?
Dr. Hu: I think it's a
combination of things.
The ticks have spread a little
bit, but they've always been
there.
The disease has spread into the
ticks so that more ticks in more
areas going up further north
along the northeast shore and
further south again along the
atlantic seaboard are carrying
Lyme disease now.
And I think that's just the
natural spread as more and more
ticks get infected in the area
and then continue to move
outwards.
John: Any idea of why more ticks
would become infected?
Dr. Hu: I think it has to do
with the numbers of infected
animals.
So the ticks pick up the
infection from mice and other
small rodents as well as birds
and as they spread -- and they
don't move very fast or very far
geographically -- as that
gradually spreads and more
infected mice spread down, you
get more infected ticks in those
areas.
John: It used to be you thought
of this as something you got
when you went hiking in the deep
woods.
But now, is it prevalent in
suburban areas as well?
Dr. Hu: Yeah.
I think, you know, both the deer
that are very important for the
ticks but don't carry Lyme
disease as well as the mice have
become suburban creatures.
And so they're living amongst us
in the suburbs all the time.
So there's more and more
interaction between people and
the ticks that are infected.
John: Does climate change play
or play a role in any of this?
Dr. Hu: It's interesting.
It's hard to predict exactly
what climate change does.
You know, the warmer weather
certainly can mean that more
mice and more deer survive the
winter, which can mean more
ticks and more infection.
But it can also mean that when
there are periods of drought,
these ticks need moisture to
survive during the Summers.
And if there's a long drought,
you can actually see decrease.
So it's variable.
What climate change could do to
Lyme disease year-to-year.
John: Earlier you said it's
important that Lyme disease be
treated early.
Should anyone who gets a tick
bite go to the doctor or is
there some warning sign that
would trigger someone to go to
the doctor?
Dr. Hu: Yeah, I think, you know,
the funny thing with Lyme
disease is that most people
don't even know that they've
been bitten by a tick.
So certainly if you've been
bitten by a tick, it's probably
worth giving your doctor a call
because there are preventative
medicines you can take.
If you take it within the first
couple of days after you've been
bitten.
I think the key thing to look
out for, if you know that you've
been bitten by a tick for Lyme
disease is to watch for that
erythema migrans rash.
John: And there are other tick
borne diseases.
It's not just Lyme disease.
There are other reasons why you
should be wary of a tick bite.
Dr. Hu: Absolutely.
And these ticks that carry Lyme
disease also carry five other
diseases.
Most of those don't have
anything as characteristic as
the rash of Lyme disease.
So what you have to be watching
out for our -- for are fevers,
chills, muscle aches, things
like that, that happened in the
summer.
John: And talk about the
research that's going on now.
What are there are there
potential new developments in in
prevention treatment?
, Is a vaccine possible?
Dr. Hu: Yeah, I think there have
been advances, especially on the
vaccine front, even in the last
couple of years.
So there is a human vaccine that
is now in phase three trials,
which is the final phase of
trials before approval that I
, think we're probably a couple
of years off from.
It's very similar to a previous
vaccine that was approved and
used in the U.S. Maybe 20 years
ago.
But this is a new variation on
that and we're very hopeful that
it'll have very similar effects
without side effects.
The other thing that just got
approved last week is a vaccine
for mice actually.
And there if you can treat the
mice and vaccinate them and
prevent them from carrying the
disease, then the ticks don't
get it.
And then if you don't have
infected ticks, you have less
infected humans.
John: How do you vaccinate mice
in the wild?
Dr. Hu: So, yeah, you're right.
Mice do not line up for
vaccines.
So what you need to do is you
need to put it in food and they
put it in baits that the the
mice will eat and they become
vaccinated that way.
John: Dr. Linden Hu of tufts
university, thank you very much.
Dr. Hu: Thank you so much.
♪♪