HENRICO COUNTY, Va. — A Henrico County research center is asking for volunteers to help them study the efficacy of a new Lyme disease vaccine.
Clinical Research Partners (CRP) at 7110 Forest Avenue is currently conducting trials to test a potential Lyme disease vaccine by Pfizer for children.
“Lyme disease is caused by a bacteria that is transferred to humans through the bite of an infected tick. If left untreated, the bacteria that causes Lyme disease can spread through the bloodstream and cause serious problems in the brain, joints, and heart,” according to CRP researchers.
The center's medical director Dr. Bo Vaughan calls Lyme disease a menace.
“Lyme disease can really affect just about any tissue in human body and that can cause lots of different types of diseases and manifestations of disease,” Dr. Vaughan explained.
Anyone can get Lyme disease, but it is more common in children and teens, he said.
There are no vaccines available to prevent Lyme disease.
“If we could get a vaccine and participate in the process of getting a vaccine to market that safe, it's potent and really works — it'd be really great for the country, and quite frankly, the world,” Vaughan stated.
He said the first two phases of this trial have been very promising in preventing disease.
CRP is looking for 100 children ages five through 17 years old who are generally healthy and have not been diagnosed with Lyme disease in the past three months.
Patients receive $125 for participating.
Call (804) 250-9859 or visit clinicalresearchrva.comto sign up.
Chesterfield woman battled mysterious symptoms until diagnosis
For years, Dawn Blair suffered severe symptoms from an unexplained illness. Those mysterious symptoms started back in the summer of 2017.
“I had migraines, I had chronic insomnia, I had dizziness, my heart - my blood pressure would go up and down. I would get faint,” she recalled. “Also, I had numbness and tingling in my feet. It felt like my feet were on fire.
Within three-and-a-half years, Blair sought advice from 26 different doctors.
A Northern Virginia doctor would later diagnose the Chesterfield hospice nurse with Lyme disease.
By the time that diagnosis came, she couldn't even walk a block and was almost in a wheelchair.
Blair documented her battle fighting the illness in her book, “Me and Mr. Monks.” In the book, she credits her rescue dog with her healing.
“He was the reason that I kept pushing and kept fighting for a diagnosis,” Blair said. “It was all him. It was all Mr. Monks. He was an angel sent from somewhere else.”
The symptoms were so severe that she contemplated suicide. However, Mr. Monks kept her going.
“I looked up and I saw him and I said I can't do that to him. Because he lives for me. I am his whole life. He doesn't care that I have these open sores on my face. He doesn't care that I can barely walk. He doesn't care that I can't do anything that I used to do. So he was the reason that I kept pushing and kept fighting for a diagnosis is — it was all him,” Blair explained.
She knows firsthand there are no cures for Lyme disease. Doctors can offer antibiotics and there are holistic treatments available.
Blair felt encouraged that there was a vaccine on the horizon that could prevent a child from going through her experience.
“I think it's amazing,” she said. “I think it's something that we need.”
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