Willing victims
A tick, the culprit in Lyme disease, which was first identified 30 years ago in Lyme, Connecticut
But it could also be that the antibiotics haven't eliminated all the infecting bacteria - and current tests on humans can't prove it one way or another.
That's why a team of researchers at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) is testing a new approach.
A tick, the culprit in Lyme disease, which was first identified 30 years ago in Lyme, Connecticut
They're in the middle of a clinical trial that allows uninfected ticks to feed on humans who have been treated for Lyme disease. Researchers will then test the ticks for the bacteria that causes the disease.
The process is called xenodiagnosis. It's been successful in identifying Lyme disease in animals, but this is the first time it's being tried on humans.
"It's very important because it could open many new avenues of research and provide a new tool for the study of Lyme disease," says Dr Adriana Marques, who's in charge of the trial.
"Right now we need hard evidence that persistence of infection plays any role in PLDS symptoms," she says.
