Correcting a public health fiasco: The need for a new vaccine against Lyme disease.

A vaccine against Lyme disease was licensed in the United States in 1998 but was subsequently removed from the market because of lack of sales. I believe that the poor acceptance of the vaccine was based on tepid recommendations by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), undocumented and probably nonexistent safety issues, and insufficient education of physicians. A new vaccine is feasible but will not be developed unless there is a demand by infectious diseases specialists, epidemiologists, authorities in affected states and the public that is evident to manufacturers. The fact that there is no vaccine for an infection causing ∼20,000 annual cases is an egregious failure of public health.