LYNN – Local runner Mike Derby has had a rough summer, for an unexpected reason.On June 26, Derby went to Union Hospital with a temperature of 103 degrees. He spent three to four hours in an emergency ward and was diagnosed with an illness called babesiosis that is spread by parasites, namely ticks.”A doctor said it was a disease, not Lyme, but the same symptoms as malaria,” Derby said.He spent 14 days on antibiotics, and while the symptoms went away after two days, “I had so much fatigue,” he said. “I tried to run two weeks later. I couldn’t run to Union. It’s one mile from my house.”Then, the plot thickened. Derby learned that one of his neighbors, Mike Doyle, had also suffered from babesiosis two years ago.”I was sitting on my porch, recovering,” Derby said. “He was walking by and we were talking. ‘I came down with a tick disease,’ I told him. He said, ‘Oh, my God, I came down with that two years ago!'””It was right about the same time I did,” Mike Derby said. “The beginning of July.” He said that she’s fine now, but “at the time, she was recovering. She was very fatigued.”Derby said there was actually a third person in Lynn who came down with babesiosis.Derby’s wife Lisa was mentioning his illness to a fellow attendee of Our Lady of the Assumption Church in Lynnfield who lives up and back of Union Hospital and whose wife, it turned out, had suffered from the same disease.Derby is concerned that ticks might be coming from the Lynn Woods Reservation, which abuts his backyard. Doyle’s house is about 15 houses down from Derby’s on the same street.”The neighborhood is full of kids,” Derby said. “They’re out walking in the woods, in the playground.”Asked whether he has seen a tick on his body, he said, “I’ve never noticed a tick, ever. Obviously, at some point, there was a tick on me, but I never noticed one … Same with my neighbor. He hasn’t noticed one either.”Pam January, a nurse with the city, said, “It should be known that Babesiosis, Lyme Disease and other tick borne illnesses are very common especially this time of year and especially around the Lynn Woods areas where there are many deer.”She added, “I, too, live near the Lynn Woods and a member of my family came down with Lyme Disease last summer. So I know quite well what these illnesses are like.”Derby is concerned that people might misdiagnose babesiosis.”They think it’s the flu, a really bad flu,” he said, “so either they don’t go to the doctor or to the emergency ward.” He added that babesiosis might not get spotted at an emergency ward, where the focus could be more towards detecting Lyme.He described symptoms as “high fever, 102-03, headache, aches and pains, chills.”Derby is also struck by the fact that two people in the same neighborhood came down with the disease, saying that a doctor told him this was “unheard-of” and that “for one person to get this is unheard-of. For two people in the same neighborhood, you need to be aware.”January said that people need to take precautions not only for humans, but also for pets.”It only makes sense that if you live near the woods and you are going to do any yard work or walking through the woods you will need to take proper precautions,” she said. “Also, if you have pets such as a dog they need protection too.”While we have seen an increase in tick borne diseases over the last several years, those numbers have remained consistent of late. Protection is key!”Derby has been on the recovery process since his illness.”The doctor who treated me, a disease doctor at Salem Hospital, thinks it’s the first time she ever treated anybody for this disease,” he said.The fact he runs two and a half to three miles a day indicated to the doctor at Salem Hospital that he was fine, Derby said.Last week, he underwent his final blood test and on Monday he received the all-clear from his primary doctor.”My (primary) doctor said it’s so bizarre,” Derby said, “that two people in the same neighborhood (came down with the disease).”He said that h