New Peer-Reviewed Publication Highlights Evidence of Mother-to-Child-Transmission of Lyme Disease Bacteria During Pregnancy and Calls for Urgent Research

maternal fetal transmission of Lyme
By Bay Area Lyme Foundation

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

 

New Peer-Reviewed Publication Highlights Evidence of Mother-to-Child-Transmission of Lyme Disease Bacteria During Pregnancy and Calls for Urgent Research

New paper in Frontiers in Medicine reports results of meeting of international researchers at the Banbury Center of Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory

PORTOLA VALLEY, Calif., April 9, 2026 –Bay Area Lyme Foundation, a national nonprofit and leading sponsor of tick-borne disease research in the US, today announced publication of a new peer-reviewed article in Frontiers in Medicine examining the transmission of the Lyme bacteria during pregnancy. The publication points to observational research demonstrating that Lyme bacteria are capable of being transmitted from mother to unborn child and recognition by both the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the National Institutes of Health (NIH) of the potential for mother-to-child transmission. With approximately 500,000 Americans diagnosed with Lyme disease each year and the related correlation of transmission during pregnancy being associated with serious adverse pregnancy outcomes, such as miscarriage, stillbirth, or congenital infection that occur in some cases, the paper concludes that the clinical impact of Lyme disease on pregnancy and infant health is an important public health issue that has been insufficiently studied.

“As an infectious disease pediatrician, I have seen firsthand the impact of Lyme disease in children and have suspected that the infection may have been passed from mother to child during pregnancy in a number of my patients, based on their medical histories,” said Charlotte Mao, MD, of Bay Area Lyme Foundation and a co-author of the study. “The first case studies of mother-to-child transmission were observed in the 1980s, yet decades later, we still lack sufficient research and clear, evidence-based guidance on Lyme in pregnancy and adverse pregnancy outcomes. This is an important public health issue and underscores the urgent need for rigorous studies to fully understand the risks and support patients and healthcare providers in making informed decisions that better protect maternal and infant health.”

Study authors highlight the great need for real-world studies clarifying how Lyme Borrelia, the bacteria that cause Lyme disease, the most common vector-borne disease in the US, behaves during pregnancy, and quantifying the outcomes for mothers and infants. Specifically, the paper suggests the creation of large, prospective studies of pregnant individuals with Lyme disease, including systematic long-term clinical follow-up of their children, as well as the importance of collecting biological samples from mothers, placentas, and infants through coordinated biorespositories for use in current or future studies.

ALL ABOUT KIDS WITH LYME, PANS, MOLD ILLNESS

DAna Parish interviews Dr Charlotte Mao
By Bay Area Lyme Foundation

Ticktective Podcast Transcript

 

Charlotte Mao, MDIn this conversation between Ticktective™ host Dana Parish and Harvard-trained pediatric infectious diseases specialist Charlotte Mao, MD, the discussion focuses on how Dr. Mao gradually moved away from the narrow view of Lyme disease and began to champion understanding and therapeutics for children suffering from persistent Lyme. They explore tick-borne diseases and their connection to other chronic illnesses that are often misunderstood and misdiagnosed by conventional medicine. Note: This transcribed podcast has been edited for clarity.

Dana Parish: Welcome to the Ticktective Podcast, a program of the Bay Area Lyme Foundation, where our mission is to make Lyme disease easy to diagnose, and simple to cure. I’m your guest host today, Dana Parish. I’m the co-author of the book Chronic, and I’m on the advisory board of Bay Area Lyme Foundation. This program offers insightful interviews with clinicians, scientists, patients, and other interesting people. We’re a non-profit foundation based in Silicon Valley, and thanks to a generous grant that covers a hundred percent of our overhead, all of your donations go directly to our research and our prevention programs. For more information about Lyme disease, please visit us at bayarealyme.org.

Dana Parish: Hi I’m so excited to guest host the Ticktective podcast today. I want to introduce you to a very dear friend of mine, one of the most brilliant, curious, interesting, funny, and dearest people. Please welcome Dr. Charlotte Mao. She is a pediatric infectious diseases physician with a special focus on Lyme disease and associated infections. She received her medical degree at Harvard Medical School and did her pediatric and infectious diseases training at Boston Children’s Hospital. The first 25 years of her career were focused primarily on pediatric HIV clinical care and clinical research, serving as a site co-investigator for numerous NIH funded multi-center pediatric HIV clinical trials at Boston Children’s Hospital. She turned her focus to Lyme and associated diseases after gaining extensive clinical experience with pediatric Lyme patients in Boston children’s hospital’s referring ID clinic. Then she joined the Pediatric Infectious Disease Department at Mass General Hospital and Spaulding Rehab Hospital Dean Center for Tick-borne Illness, where she was the pediatric IG specialist in a multidisciplinary clinic for children with complex Lyme disease. She is currently curriculum director for Invisible International. She most recently served on a tick-borne disease working group subcommittee for prevention and treatment and co-organized a Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Banbury Conference on perinatal transmission of Lyme Disease. She’s also on the Bay Area Lyme Foundation’s Science Committee. Welcome, Charlotte. It’s so great to see you!