Oct
13
It’s finally happened. Despite your speed, agility, cunning and many feats of strength, you’ve come down with a dreaded case of cooties. You probably have lots of questions. Do I have to go to the hospital to get my cootie shot? Does insurance cover circle circle, dot dots? What if my doctor has cooties, too?! Advertising Policy Cleveland Clinic is a non-profit academic medical center. Advertising on our site helps support our mission. We do not endorse non-Cleveland Clinic products or services. Policy Before you get too worried, it’s important we let you know: Cooties aren’t real. At least, not as we understand them today. So, why are we bothering to talk about cooties if they aren’t real? Simply put, it doesn’t matter that cooties are a figment of our collective imagination because they have a symbolic meaning in many cultures. This fictional disease is powerful because it can offer a chance to teach children how to behave in the face of real disease. We asked pediatric infectious disease specialist Frank Esper, MD, to help us dissect this imaginary communicable disease. Read on to learn why it exists and what it tells us about the ways societies respond to public health crises. The history of cooties That’s right: Cooties are fake, but they have a real — and important — history. It starts in the Pacific. Many different Austronesian languages use words that sound vaguely like “cootie” to describe parasitic insects. The word took on a life of its own when cultures came together. Origins of the word ‘cooties’ Unfortunately, there are few things that bring different cultures into contact like war. That’s exactly what happened with cooties. As you may have learned in history class, World War I soldiers did most of their fighting from trenches. Those muddy pits were hot beds for all sorts of creepy crawlies, many of which carried infectious diseases like typhus, malaria and yellow fever. In fact, more people died from disease and famine during World War I than died in battle. Soldiers used the word “cooties” to describe both the parasitic bugs that lived in the trenches with them and the illnesses the bugs gave them. In fact, they had another name for cooties: arithmetic bugs. Why? Because when the so-called cooties got on the soldiers, “They added to our troubles, subtracted from our pleasures, divided our attention, and multiplied like hell.” While we know people were speaking about cooties in the early 20th century, the term was popularized later, by American soldiers returning home from the South Pacific theaters of World War II. Their children heard it and starting using the term as a form of social rejection. In particular, you’d use cooties as a way to mock members of the opposite sex as “icky” or “dirty.” If little boys and girls get too close to each other, one is sure to give the other their cooties. Cooties spread throughout U.S. culture in part because — as serious as epidemic disease and social rejection may be — cooties also became the subject of many games, specifically, board games. The board game You might be surprised to know that there’s actually a board game version of the cooties game. In fact, there have been several. In every single version of the board game, there’s no ambivalence: Cooties are parasitic bugs. It’s that simple. But only some children encounter cooties on a tabletop. Most of us are first exposed to the concept of cooties in backyards and on playgrounds, where there’s a lot more room for interpretation … and invention. The playground version While its popularity waxes and wanes in response to current events, children in many different communities around the world have been playing free-form cooties games for generations now. In most versions of the game, one or more “infected” children chase the cootie-free children, spreading the fictional disease through some form of physical contact. Some children play the game zombie-style: The cootie-havers’ ranks grow and grow, making it increasingly difficult for the uninfected to win. Other children treat it more like a game of tag: Once the cootie-haver transfers the infection to another child, they’re cured. Real-world cooties Cooties may not be real, but are there any infections that you could call “cootie-esque”? Dr. Esper thinks so. “I’ve always felt scabies is most akin to cooties,” he muses. Scabies, also known as sarcoptic mange, is a common parasitic condition caused by mites burrowing under the skin and laying eggs there. Lice are similarly strong candidates. In fact, some scholars believe the word “cootie” originates from the Malay and Māori word for louse: “kutu.” There’s nothing “sexy” about parasites and parasitic bugs — and they don’t get nearly the same attention that viral and bacterial infections do — but they should. “There are many, many different parasites,” Dr. Esper says. “They fall under the umbrella of ‘infectious disease’ because an infectious disease is basically any organism that tries to take advantage of you, harming you in the process. “Parasites are fairly uncommon in the United States,” he continues, “but they are extremely common globally. In fact, parasitic infections are some of the most common infections worldwide.” He notes that you’ll find more parasites anywhere that doesn’t have substantial water sanitation or insect control. “Malaria is one of the most common parasitic infections worldwide that is transmitted by mosquitoes,” says Dr. Esper. “We eliminated malaria in the U.S. through a large-scale public health campaign in the 1950s,” he adds, “But after seven decades, we’re beginning to see local transmission again.” The lessons cooties teach us If you’ve ever watched a nature documentary before, you’ve probably heard that play is incredibly important. It’s almost like rehearsing for real life. A tiger cub, for example, learns how to hunt by stalking and “attacking” its siblings. Games are just as important for human children (and let’s be honest, for adults, too). Playing helps us confront things that would otherwise scare us in a safe environment. Is