A University of Vermont Larner College of Medicine researcher has received a grant to advance a study that could create the first treatment for a tick-borne disease.
Dr. Peter Hyson has received the Bay Area Lyme Foundation’s $150,000 Emerging Leader Award to accelerate his research into babesiosis, a blood infection transferred to humans by ticks. Parasites called babesia destroy red blood cells and can lead to flu-or-malaria-like complications including fever, abdominal pain, vomiting, and anemia. Hyson’s research could lead to the first drug created specifically to treat of babesiosis.
The college says about 60% of blacklegged ticks in Vermont carry a tickborne disease.
