Senate Unanimously Passes Kay Hagan Tick Reauthorization Act as Lyme Cases Hit Record Highs
核心洞察
The Senate unanimously passed the Kay Hagan Tick Reauthorization Act, renewing federal vector-borne disease efforts for five years and extending Regional Centers of Excellence funding.
An estimated 500,000 Americans are diagnosed with Lyme disease (搜索) annually, a more than 2,000 percent increase over 20 years, with Maine reporting a record 4,200 cases in 2025.
A Lyme disease vaccine clinical trial is underway at the MaineHealth Institute for Research (搜索), supported by funding enabled through the original Kay Hagan Tick Act.
The U.S. Senate has unanimously passed the Kay Hagan Tick Reauthorization Act, legislation authored by Sen. Susan M. Collins of Maine and Sen. Tina Smith of Minnesota that renews federal efforts against Lyme disease (搜索) and other vector-borne illnesses for five years. Collins said she is optimistic the House will pass the bill before the end of the year.
The reauthorization strengthens the original Kay Hagan Tick Act, which Collins co-authored and which was signed into law nearly seven years ago after her friend and former colleague Sen. Kay Hagan of North Carolina died from complications of a tick-borne virus. That landmark law established a comprehensive national, state, and local approach to combat Lyme and other vector-borne diseases and directed the Department of Health and Human Services (搜索) to develop and implement a public health strategy, which was released in February 2024.
Record Case Numbers Drive Urgency
An estimated 500,000 Americans are diagnosed and treated for Lyme disease (搜索) each year, representing an increase of more than 2,000 percent over the last 20 years, according to Collins. In Maine, a record 4,200 cases were reported in 2025 — more than three times the number reported in 2020. Experts predict tick populations will increase again this year following a winter that was not consistently cold enough to reduce their numbers.
The human cost of the disease is underscored by patient accounts. Collins recounted the experience of Paula Jackson Jones of Damariscotta, Maine, who required two years, scores of tests, 23 physicians, and $250,000 in medical expenses before learning she had Lyme disease (搜索). Jackson Jones subsequently founded a Lyme support organization in the state.
Writing separately, investigative reporter and Lyme disease (搜索) author Mary Beth Pfeiffer described patients disabled and financially ruined by tick-borne disease, with some harboring multiple infections including Lyme, babesiosis (搜索), anaplasmosis (搜索), and Powassan virus (搜索). These infections, she wrote, wreak havoc on the heart, brain, joints, and nervous system. Lyme disease alone causes lingering illness in roughly 10 percent to 20 percent of cases, and one study cited by Pfeiffer found that one million to two million people suffered persistent, debilitating symptoms, placing the disease on a U.S. Centers for Disease Control list of "infection-associated chronic conditions and illnesses."
Diagnostics Remain a Persistent Weak Point
Pfeiffer characterized the current antibody test for Lyme disease (搜索) as antiquated, noting it is correct in only 36 percent of early blood draws. She argued the test should have been retired decades ago and that the technology to replace it exists, with urgency and funding the missing elements. A 2017 study cited by Pfeiffer found the failure rate of Lyme tests was 170 to 500 times higher than for HIV tests.
She attributed the funding disparity to mortality metrics: HIV/AIDS deaths numbered 7,275 in 2024, compared with 90 deaths from Lyme disease (搜索) that year. Because the major tick-borne illness cannot be properly diagnosed, its consequences cannot be properly counted, she wrote. Pfeiffer also cited the 2024 case of a 47-year-old airline pilot in New Jersey who suffered anaphylaxis and died after eating a hamburger at a barbecue; the cause was initially listed as "sudden unexplained death" before further investigation, prompted by his wife, connected it to his history of bites by the rapidly spreading lone star tick.
Vaccine Trial and Surveillance Infrastructure
Collins highlighted a Lyme disease vaccine clinical trial now underway at the MaineHealth Institute for Research (搜索), with support made possible through the Tick Act. She noted the irony that her Labrador retriever can be vaccinated against Lyme disease (搜索) while humans cannot, and said a safe and effective vaccine would represent a major breakthrough in protecting millions of Americans.
The reauthorization extends the Regional Centers of Excellence in Vector-Borne Disease, which have supported more than 225 prevention and control projects and trained more than 8,500 local vector control professionals along with more than 630 undergraduate, graduate, and postdoctoral students. It also renews CDC grants to state health departments for surveillance, early detection, diagnosis, treatment, and public awareness. Since 2019, that funding has helped increase the number of health departments reporting tick-surveillance data from six to 44.
The original strategy is already showing results, according to Collins: one of its goals — eliminating deaths from Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever (搜索) in Arizona tribal communities — was achieved last year.
Research and Education Investments in Maine
The University of Maine Tick Lab (搜索) is translating research into practical tools, including a kit that allows members of the public to submit ticks for pathogen testing, helping researchers identify and track disease risks across the state. The lab also works closely with game wardens, foresters, and others routinely exposed to tick bites. Through her role on the Senate Appropriations Committee, Collins has secured more than $6 million for the lab, including $2.5 million to strengthen tick and pathogen surveillance across northern New England, $2 million to study safer alternatives to conventional pesticides and how climate affects tick management, and more than $1.5 million to expand prevention education in rural communities.
Pfeiffer framed the broader challenge as one of national attention and investment, contrasting the $1.1 billion Congress committed in 2016 to stop mosquito-borne Zika virus after it was linked to fetal deformity with what she described as inadequate treatments, flawed diagnostics, and government complacency toward tick-borne disease. She called for awareness, studies, data, and funding to measure the true extent of tick-borne harm.