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Your dog can get a Lyme disease vaccine. Why can’t you?

Michigan Public | By Stateside Staff

Published July 16, 2018 at 4:11 PM EDT

Scientists say a warming climate is pushing deer ticks (Blacklegged ticks) - the main carrier of Lyme disease - farther north.

Stateside’s conversation with Dr. Robert Aronowitz, professor in the History and Sociology of Science department at the University of Pennsylvania.

If you’re out in wooded or brushy areas this summer and want to avoid Lyme disease, here’s the advice of the day: Wear long sleeves and pants, and check yourself frequently for ticks, which spread the disease.

But for a time in the late 1990s and early 2000s, people had the option to take an even more preventative measure: They could get a Lyme disease vaccine.

Dr. Robert Aronowitz, medical doctor and a professor at the University of Pennsylvania, joined Stateside to explain the history of Lyme disease in this country, and why getting a vaccine against the infection is no longer an option.

Listen above to hear more.

UPDATED July, 17, 2018: This post has been updated to correct a photo. In original publishing, a photo of a lonestar tick was used and misidentified as a deer tick. Lonestar ticks are not carriers of Lyme disease.

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