Curie Brief
Turn on cookies to sign in
Signing in saves your progress to your Curie account. We can only do that with cookies on — turn them on to continue.
News
Got Lyme? You might have more. A large U.S. study found that nearly 1 in 3 people who tested positive for the Lyme disease bacterium also carried at least one other tick-borne pathogen. Researchers say clinicians need to broaden their diagnostic lens — because treating Lyme alone may not be enough, especially as tick species spread into new regions.
A new retrospective cohort study published in JAMA Network Open reveals that tick-borne disease is rarely a one-pathogen problem. Among nearly 200,000 people tested for tick-borne illnesses in the U.S., 5% were positive for Borrelia burgdorferi — the bacterium behind Lyme disease. Of those, a striking 29.5% also tested positive for at least one additional tick-borne pathogen, including Anaplasma phagocytophilum, Babesia microti, or an Ehrlichia species.
Geography matters — a lot. The Northeast had the highest co-seropositivity rate at 31.1%, nearly double the Midwest's 16.6%. But researchers warn that traditional regional assumptions about which ticks live where are increasingly outdated, as tick species migrate across the country.
By the Numbers
Why it matters: Treatment isn't one-size-fits-all. Doxycycline covers Lyme and anaplasmosis but not babesiosis — meaning a missed co-infection could leave a patient undertreated. Clinicians are urged to think beyond Lyme, even when symptoms seem textbook.
