News

By Patty Shillington, UMass Amherst Researchers at the New England Regional Center of Vector-Borne Diseases at the University of Massachusetts Amherst have come up with a new, more accurate method for detecting in ticks the emerging Powassan virus, which can cause... Read More »

By Anne Trafton, MIT News Lyme disease, a bacterial infection transmitted by ticks, affects nearly half a million people in the United States every year. In most cases, antibiotics effectively clear the infection, but for some patients, symptoms linger for months or years.... Read More »

The COVID-19 virus can persist in the blood and tissue of patients for more than a year after the acute phase of the illness has ended, according to new research from University of California, San Francisco that offers potential clues to why some people develop long COVID. The... Read More »

Virginia’s General Assembly has unanimously passed a bill to make alpha-gal syndrome (AGS) reportable to the CDC. It now goes to the governor to be signed into law. AGS, triggered by the bite of a lone star tick, can make a person highly allergic to red meat and meat-related... Read More »

The Rhode Island Department of Health has reported a confirmed case of tick-borne Powassan virus disease in a Rhode Island resident. The patient, a man in his 70s, began experiencing symptoms of Powassan in late January. He is recovering at home. Powassan is a tick-borne disease... Read More »

People often associate ticks with being in rural or suburban areas. But the infection-carrying arachnids can be found in densely populated cities as well. In a study recently published in the Journal of Medical Entomology, researchers collected 2500 ticks from parks in four New... Read More »

By Cynthia McCormick Hibbert, Northeastern University Human safety trials of a novel antibiotic treatment for Lyme disease developed by Northeastern professor Kim Lewis are scheduled to start this spring in Australia, with results anticipated by fall. “Hopefully, the results will... Read More »

U.S. Representatives Abigail Spanberger (Virginia) and Andrew R. Garbarino (New York) have introduced bipartisan legislation to allow for greater monitoring and reporting of alpha-gal syndrome (AGS) cases by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Alpha-gal syndrome... Read More »

In 2023, Virginia convened a working group to study and make recommendations for reducing the impact of tick-borne diseases in that state. The panel, composed of public health officials, academic experts, patient representatives, and other stakeholders, held five meetings... Read More »