NEW YORK — New at-home Lyme disease screening kits that test the tick itself are set to hit the market this August. Among them is the LymeAlert kit, priced at about $50, which can detect Lyme-causing bacteria in a removed tick in as little as 15 to 30 minutes.
How Tick-Testing Kits Work
- Crush and process: The removed tick is placed in a specialized container with a processing solution that breaks down its outer shell.
- Test for bacteria: A test strip is inserted into the solution to detect Borrelia burgdorferi, the bacterium responsible for Lyme disease.
- Get rapid results: The strip provides a positive or negative result in approximately 15 to 30 minutes.
Tick Testing vs. At-Home Blood Tests
Some at-home Lyme disease tests require users to collect a blood sample and mail it to a lab to check for antibodies. Because antibodies can take weeks to develop after a tick bite, those tests may not immediately indicate exposure.
Tick-testing kits, by contrast, analyze the tick directly, offering a quicker assessment of whether the insect was carrying Lyme disease bacteria and potentially exposed the person it bit.
