WEBlue

I agree. I think the argument against antibiotic overuse goes right out the window when you yourself--or one of your children--need a strong bullet and nothing else will work ... or work as well.

Taking one course of antibiotic as early as possible after a doctor determines that infection is likely rather than having to take massive doses later on, perhaps years later, when the spirochetes have begun to do their real damage to the body's organs--just seems sensible to me.

But yes, what we really need is a vaccine. In my opinion, in some parts of this country a Lyme vaccine should be one of the childhood requirements...

Englishmum

Eh? We've been on an expat posting in Zug (between Zurich and Lucerne, German speaking part of Switzerland) for the past three years. There are approx 200 expats here with my spouse's company - mainly from the US (Aetna health insurance) and UK (BUPA International health insurance). We have never been informed about vaccinations re: Lyme Disease, I've just asked my spouse and no-one at the office has mentioned it

We have fields, woods, farms with cattle, sheep, goats etc. right behind our apartment as well as a small mountain, the Zugerberg - with many thousands of trees, bushes etc. but have not yet had a tick bite

The sad thing is that in the New Jersey township where we have a house (18 miles west of NYC) the local council allows hunters to go into the local reservation to shoot the deer, blaming them for the spread of Lyme Disease, yet I imagine that one is more likely to get them via raccoons and skunks tbh.

kodokan

My mistake, sorry - I misremembered as there was some expat confusion at the time. It's not a Lyme vaccine, it's one against tick-born encephalitis. Here's a thread on Englishforum discussing it; I recall similar chats on Yahoo Mums too:
http://www.englishforum.ch/family-ma...ccination.html. Still, might be worth looking into that vaccine, since I think you're in a 'ticky' area.

Markie

Agreed, but that's why GSK needs to be petitioned to re-introduce the vaccine. Possibly, make it a childhood recommended vaccine in parts of the northeast US - that would both improve vaccine coverage AND give GSK protection from nonsense lawsuits.

Tick-borne encephalitis vaccine is neither necessary nor approved in the US, because TBE doesn't occur here.

scrubbedexpat099

http://www.theguardian.com/society/2...-martin-blaser

Rather appropriate article in the Guardian today. I agree with the principal even if this text is a bit ropy.

Does beg the question if holding off yourself helps if other people are developing more resistant versions.

Not sure if it really matters, pills are cheap. Doctors expensive, so the pills win.

sir_eccles

Ropy? It's downright fluffy unsupported nonsense and conjecture. He may be a scientist in a lab but to suddenly say "oh my there can't possibly be ten different reasons for these ten diseases it must be antibiotics misuse" is poor thinking. He might as well have said God did it.

Yes antibiotics are being misused and causing resistant strains to develop and a balance of good bacteria is needed in the gut. That's why you are often recommended to eat yoghurt when taking them. But to say whet he is saying is almost as bad as Wakefield.

steveq

Good, it wasn't just me that thought that.