Linda Badoian had been bit by ticks at least five times this summer before she got sick.

Like many others on Islesboro, Badoian, 86, has already had Lyme disease; ticks have become a part of life. But this time, something was different: her symptoms didn’t respond to the preventative dose of antibiotics the island’s health center typically gives out while waiting for test results from the mainland.

Badoian, it turned out, had Islesboro’s first confirmed case of babesiosis, a tick-borne disease caused by a parasite that attacks red blood cells faster than they can be replaced.

It made her so anemic that she almost needed a blood transfusion. Her strength now has mostly returned, but she’s still tired and nervous about going into the woods. Her husband, George, was also bitten by an in

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