For FDA to specifically approve a treatment, a large-scale, carefully controlled clinical trial would need to be submitted for review, she adds. But since useful drugs are already available, pharmaceutical manufacturers lack incentive to conduct such a trial. Physicians most commonly prescribe oral doxycycline, amoxicillin or erythromycin. One problem with using antibiotics to treat Lyme disease is that treatment can curtail the body's production of Lyme spirochete antibodies, which may make a person less resistant to repeat infection. I know someone in Connecticut who got Lyme disease three times.
Researchers are also interested in seeing if there are different strains of the spirochete.
Vaccines A vaccine is usually made from a killed microbe, or part of it, that signals the immune system to mount an attack. A Lyme disease vaccine containing a protein from the surface of the spirochete, called Osp A, is being evaluated in humans. It is currently being tested for efficacy in preventing Lyme disease in high-risk northeastern populations. Vaccine test results in mice published in the June 1992 issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences suggest that this particular vaccine has a double effect, protecting the mice while also stemming the spread of infection by ticks. In the experiment, uninfected mice were given the vaccine, then exposed to ticks carrying the Lyme bacteria.