The discovery of Lyme disease

In 1975, a mysterious outbreak of illness struck children in the United States, triggering a medical breakthrough.

Prof Allen Steere uncovered a bacterial infection which was spread by blood‑sucking ticks. It was formally identified for the first time and would go on to be named Lyme disease, after the town where it first emerged. He speaks to Reena Stanton-Sharma about what led to the discovery.

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(Photo: Prof Allen Steere in his lab at Massachusetts General Hospital in 2013. Credit: Yoon S. Byun/The Boston Globe via Getty Images)