The First At-Home Test for Infected Ticks Could Improve Lyme Disease Diagnosis

More than 31 million Americans experience a tick bite each year, and ticks can transmit diseases including anaplasmosis, babesiosis, Rocky Mountain spotted fever, alpha-gal syndrome and Lyme disease. The CDC recently reported a spike in tick-borne-illness ER visits, with Lyme disease the most common; about 476,000 patients are treated annually, mostly in the Northeast, Mid-Atlantic and Upper Midwest where blacklegged ticks are prevalent.

Pediatric physician associate Erin Dawicki in Boston has noticed more children with swollen joints and no trauma, signaling Lyme arthritis from untreated bites. Early treatment is critical: symptoms include a bull's-eye rash, fever, chills, headache, fatigue and muscle aches. Standard treatment is a 10- to 14-day course of antibiotics, or a single 200-mg doxycycline dose within 72 hours if the tick was attached for 36 hours in high-risk areas. Even with treatment, some develop post-treatment Lyme disease syndrome, which causes persistent fatigue, pain or cognitive issues; the CDC advises time, not additional antibiotics.

Dawicki often prescribes antibiotics before a confirmed diagnosis because Lyme risk is so high, contributing to antibiotic resistance. LymeAlert aims to solve this by letting people test ticks at home for infection, providing faster answers and potentially reducing unnecessary prescriptions.