Although the disease isn't a dire threat to the young or the healthy, it can kill AIDS patients, cancer patients using chemotherapy, and other people taking medicines that affect the body's immune system. Older people, especially those who have had their spleens removed, are susceptible. The median age of those infected this year is 62. Babesiosis isn't the only threat this summer. More cases are expected.
Deer ticks carry all three diseases.
I'm concerned that we will continue to see cases well into September. People are still being bitten by ticks, so they should be on guard. Babesiosis was first diagnosed in the Northeast in the 1970s on Nantucket Island in Massachusetts. Since then, it has been found along the East Coast, from New York to Cape Cod, said Don Nadeau, a doctor who specializes in the treatment of Lyme disease and babesiosis at the Wickford Junction medical clinic in North Kingstown. While Lyme disease comes with a telltale circular rash, babesiosis has no such obvious clue.