NEW BRUNSWICK, NJ – Last April, Rutgers introduced a pediatric vaccine for Lyme disease.
It would be the first vaccine to save Lyme disease in young people aged five to 17.
There is no vaccine for Lyme for adults.
Rutgers decided as a clinical trial site through Pfizer to test the vaccine; Pfizer has partnered with French vaccine maker Valneva SE to create the pediatric Lyme vaccine. Pfizer has used Rutgers University as a control site for its coronavirus vaccine and boosters for adults and children.
Pfizer/Valneva is testing its Lyme vaccine in about 50 national studies and Rutgers is the only clinical trial in New Jersey.
Rutgers, through its Rutgers-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, is recently recruiting 50 to 100 children ages 5 to 17 for the two-year exam. The test will ultimately involve a total of 3,000 children across the United States. Children have not been diagnosed with Lyme disease in the past 3 months.
Lyme disease is through a bacterium, called Borrelia burgdorferi, that is transmitted to humans through the bite of an inflamed tick. If left untreated, the bacteria can spread through the bloodstream and cause serious disorders in the brain, joints, and heart.
Ticks carrying Lyme disease are not unusual in New Jersey.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, about 476,000 Americans are diagnosed and treated for Lyme disease, which is not unusual in youth and teens.
Here’s how the will works:
Three of the 4 participants who meet the eligibility criteria for the will receive doses of the vaccine, while a quarter of the remaining youth will receive a placebo. Three doses will be given in the first six months, with a booster given a year later.
Participants will be required to have six follow-up visits with the examination team in New Brunswick, where there will be a clinical evaluation and two follow-up phone calls to the examinee.
The following is from Sunanda Gaur, M. D. , director of the Rutgers Pediatric Clinical Research Center and leader of the trial:
“The progression of a vaccine is vital because ultimately the only prevention is for young people from tick bites through clothing and insect repellents, and then checking them after playing outside, especially if they are in the woods or in green areas,” he said. They are most threatened in the spring and summer, when ticks are most active. “
For more information or, in all likelihood, to enroll your child, email lyme_study@rwjms. rutgers. edu
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