Did you know that at one time their was a vaccine that you could take to help prevent lyme disease? It was called LYMERix, and it was only on the market for a few short years, @1996 to 2002. The vaccine was made by SmithKline Beecham and according to History of Vaccines, 78% effective after all three doses were given. The three doses were made up of the initial injection than a second one, one month later and then the third dose was 12 months after the first one.

The reason that it was taken off the market? In less than two years there were over 900 cases of patients reporting side effects as a result of the vaccine. Is this a case where they should have kept testing the vaccine to make it better, because of the high number of cases of persons who are now suffering from Lyme Disease? Or it was good that they took this product off the market because people should not have to deal with the side effects and there is a chance that they might never be bitten by a tick so why go through all of this?

If you got the vaccine, was it worth it? According to the CDC, if you did receive the vaccine prior to it being discontinued in 2002 you are probably no longer protected against Lyme Disease.

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