New actions targeting Lyme disease, alpha-gal syndrome, and other tick-borne illnesses are coming from the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced Monday, joined by actor Dennis Quaid.
Kennedy laid out the announcement in a video posted to X, framing the effort as a push to speed diagnosis and expand treatment for patients who spend years searching for answers.
“Millions of Americans need faster diagnoses, better care, and real answers,” Kennedy wrote in the post.
The secretary said too many patients are misdiagnosed or go untreated and pointed to nearly half a million Americans diagnosed and treated for Lyme disease each year. He said HHS is investing millions in innovation to build AI-powered tools that improve care, enable earlier diagnosis, and accelerate research.
“HHS has worked with the LymeX community to help bring two improved FDA-cleared Lyme diagnostics to market, giving clinicians better tools and helping more patients get an accurate diagnosis sooner,” Kennedy said.
Quaid appeared alongside Kennedy as a patient advocate and recounted the case of his late friend, singer and actor Kris Kristofferson, who spent years carrying an Alzheimer’s diagnosis.
“But Alzheimer’s wasn’t the problem,” Quaid said. “He actually had Lyme disease and when the doctors finally diagnosed him correctly in 2016 and started the right treatment, his symptoms did improve.”
Kennedy urged recovered patients and those with lingering symptoms to submit their treatment histories through Cure ID, the free FDA and NIH app that collects real-world data. He said patients without a trusted provider can use the clinician locator at hhs.gov/lyme to find experienced doctors by zip code.
The announcement builds on a slate of initiatives Kennedy rolled out in May at the New Hampshire State House, where he said more than 476,000 Americans are diagnosed with Lyme disease annually. That package included a multimillion-dollar CDC tick-control pilot, up to $2.5 million in LymeX innovation challenges, and a public-private clinician-locator partnership. The department set a goal of cutting Lyme cases 25 percent by 2035 compared with 2022 levels. Kennedy has folded the campaign into his broader “Take Back Your Health” tour, part of the Make America Healthy Again agenda he has advanced through a string of food and public-health actions this year.
Antibiotics clear most early infections, but between 10 and 20 percent of treated patients remain symptomatic for years, according to the Washington Examiner.
