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(Ivanhoe Newswire) -- People who receive vaccines against deadly diseases may let their guard down a little, but they're not likely to throw caution to the wind.
That's the key finding from University of North Carolina researchers who surveyed people before and after a new vaccine against the tick-borne Lyme disease became available. Compared to people who didn't get the shot, those who did reported they were less likely to follow two important preventative measures: wearing light colored clothing to enable ticks to be seen and wearing insect repellant.
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But they didn't take it much farther than that, leading the researchers to conclude the vaccine, which is only about 80 percent effective, isn't really raising people's risk of getting Lyme disease by creating a false sense of security -- something the investigators term "risk compensation."
The researchers suggest their findings might also apply to the new HPV vaccine, which also falls short of being 100 percent effective -- in this case, against the sexually transmitted virus known to cause many cases of cervical cancer. Some people have speculated girls and women who receive the shot might be more likely to engage in risky sexual behavior because they feel protected by the shot.
"What on earth can Lyme disease vaccination tell us about HPV?" study author Noel Brewer, Ph.D., was quoted as saying. "Well, it sets you up to ask the right questions. In the place where risk compensation is most likely to happen -- a disease where people know the risk and know how to prevent it -- we find weak support for it."
This article was reported by Ivanhoe.com, which offers Medical Alerts by e-mail every day of the week. To subscribe, click on: http://www.ivanhoe.com/newsalert/.
SOURCE: Annals of Behavioral Medicine, published online July 13, 2007
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