The Ticks Are Back

By Frederic Golden

Those lush grasses and eruptions of colorful spring wildflowers around the country this week may seem like a benign by-product of El Nino's drenching rains. But they could be a booby trap for outdoors-loving Americans. Ready to pounce out of the dense vegetation on any passing body will be another effect of the moist, warmer-than-usual weather: battalions of speck-size ticks carrying the summertime scourge called Lyme disease.

Although the number of new cases of Lyme seemed to have peaked in the U.S. at 16,000 in 1996, public health officials are warning that this year's total could soar. Since the first mysterious outbreak of arthritis-like pain and fever among residents near the Connecticut community of Lyme in 1975, at least 100,000 Americans have been infected with the disease. Now endemic throughout the Northeast as well as parts of the Midwest and the West Coast, Lyme disease is caused by a corkscrew-shaped bacterium called Borrelia burgdorferi. It is spread by the bite of ticks that usually live on mice and deer but also attach themselves to other warm-blooded creatures, including people. Typically, within a month of a bite, a large, bull's-eye rash shows up at the site, accompanied by chills, fever, headache and painful joints. Untreated, the infection may eventually lead to severe arthritis, facial palsy and irregular heartbeat. Deaths, however, are rare.

Until now, only antibiotics have worked against Lyme disease. But a new weapon may be at hand. After a nationwide clinical trial involving some 11,000 people, an advisory panel last week urged the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to approve a novel vaccine developed by SmithKline Beecham under the name Lymerix. The vaccine works when the tick is sucking the victim's blood, launching antibodies against the bacteria even before they've left the tick's gut. Although it took three shots over 12 months to achieve it, the vaccine gave immunity to 90% of the test subjects ages 15 to 65 (it is somewhat less effective in the very old). The only side effect reported was some soreness from the shots themselves.

The vaccine is not a panacea, however. "Right now the [immunization] schedule is not really user-friendly," admits Dr. Vijay Sikand of Tufts University School of Medicine, one of the participating physicians. "You have to remember to come back 11 months after the second shot." Nor did the panel recommend, pending further testing, use by pregnant women, people with chronic arthritis or youngsters under 18--a group with one of the highest risks of exposure. So even if the FDA gives Lymerix a quick O.K., it won't be of much help against this summer's tick onslaught.

Instead, if you're outdoor-bound in a tick-infested area this season, you would be well advised to take special precautions: dose yourself with a tick repellent, wear long sleeves and pants (with cuffs tucked stylishly under your socks) and avoid high grass. If a close examination of personal nooks and crannies afterward reveals any suspect pinhead-size specks, remove them gently with tweezers.

--By Frederic Golden. Reported by Alice Park/New York

With reporting by Alice Park/New York