The explosive rise in tick-borne diseases in many parts of the United States over the last five decades represents a major public health threat that demands innovative solutions, warns a group of scientists. They outline why the stakes are so high and describe some potential solutions.
Possible solutions include a new class of vaccines for humans and even for the animals that carry the ticks.The explosive rise in tick-borne diseases in many parts of the United States over the last five decades represents a major public health threat that demands innovative solutions, warns a group of Yale scientists. In a review article, they outline why the stakes are so high and describe some potential solutions.
Today an estimated 490,000 people in the United States are infected annually by tick-borne diseases such as Lyme disease, an increase that researchers say has been fueled by the return of formerly depleted forests and a dramatic increase in populations of tick-hosting white-tailed deer. In response to this rapid rise of a host of tick-borne diseases, Fikrig's lab at Yale is developing vaccines that combat a variety of infections by thwarting the ability of ticks to feed and even alert human hosts when they have been bitten by a tick.
Durland Fish, professor emeritus of epidemiology at Yale School of Public Health and a co-author of the article, argues that such a vaccine could also be delivered orally within bait that would be consumed by deer. Ideally, he said, ticks would then be unable to feed upon the blood of that deer, which in turn would reduce tick populations and the risk of disease for humans.
"Toward this goal, we must have a multidisciplinary, One Health approach that will harness the vision of molecular biologists, entomologists, ecologists, epidemiologists, physicians, veterinarians and vaccinologists," the authors conclude.Innovating, i.e. the ability to find solutions to new problems or innovative solutions to known problems, it provides crucial benefits for the adaptation and the survival of human beings as well as ...
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