Around a Rosy
by Virginia T. Sherr, M.D.
First image is that of small children at play. If there are adults involved in the game, they are reduced to the stature of "little" themselves because they have to fall down, too. Such fun! "Ring around a Rosy" is beloved by toddlers because it can be a great equalizer with adults. There is nothing authoritarian about a singing adult flopping on the grass.
This playfulness has a grim history, however. It seems to have originated during the Great Plagues that swept across Europe during the Dark Ages. The "falling down" at the end had to do with the fact that people were felled by the hundreds of thousands and the "rosy" is said to refer to the way that people tried to protect themselves with flowers, an old-time herbal remedy, perhaps.
Today, the grass upon which the children play may harbor potential for two different kinds of "rings": the telltale bull's-eye ring that may appear in some cases that mark the onset of Lyme disease. And when one looks through a modern microscope deeply into the blood of a child afflicted with babesiosis, another tick-carried plague, the game might be remembered. Set inside the red blood cells there are dark rings -- one form (merozoites) of a microbe that also represents a pestilence. Tiny babesiosis parasites living inside the red cells are making more and more Americans fall down. As in years gone by, people try to protect themselves with herbal and other remedies, not knowing the cause of their symptoms. And as the disease progresses, their on-going energy losses hardly will allow them to stand up or to even think about playing games.
Malaria is a close relative of babesiosis. It is widely respected and feared--a major, worldwide epidemic that has gained the attention of health professionals globally. In this country, babesiosis similarly is spreading like a ring of fire from the New England states where it was identified into the grass and brush wherever ticks are found. However, state and local Departments of Health, government officials, and most physicians are reluctant to investigate what they imagine to be rare and exotic. Pleas to Health Departments for dragging to collect and test ticks for the causative babesia protozoan parasite fall on deaf ears in many areas. Babesiosis is not even a reportable disease according to the Center of Disease Control. Thus, multitudes of children, playing innocently in the grass, and their parents as well, are equalized by rings - rings in the rosy red blood cells and those other rings--the ones on skin - the famous bull's eye rings of Lyme disease.
Fortunately, our second millennial remedies include powerful medications in addition to herbal help but, even so, they are not universal cures. Today's most effective antidote may turn out to be the people who are beginning to find a collective voice to demand medical, governmental and epidemiological interventions before they "all fall down".
