Once called Nantucket fever, the tick-borne illness babesios is spreading from the Northeast into the Midwest. A clinical trial starts this month to see if an anti-malaria drug can treat the disease.
Babesiosis is caused by parasites that live in red blood cells. In the U.S., the disease is carried and spread by deer ticks, also known as blacklegged ticks (Ixodes scapularis), which have distinct red abdomens and are about the size of a sesame seed.
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Researchers at the Tufts Lyme Disease Initiative recently received grants totaling more than $7 million to build on an already impressive array of discoveries that Tufts' teams have made to combat tick-borne diseases.