Babesiosis

Babesiosis is borne of a parasite that can be traced before a blood transfusion. So why do four in every 1,000 donations still contain the potentially deadly disease? The Daily Beast

Babesiosis
Babesiosis

image by: WORLD LYME DAY May 1st

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This Malaria-Like Parasite Is Spreading in North America

While we lived together, a good friend of mine who hails from West Africa taught me to think beyond geopolitical borders. Among countless stories, she sometimes mentioned exotic illnesses that were common in other parts of the world. One is malaria -- that infamous mosquito-transmitted parasite that causes severe flulike symptoms most notably characterized by a sudden fever that comes and goes every couple of days. Those who are treated for the sometime-fatal illness may experience recurrences because the pathogen sometimes is not treated effectively or fully and can come back years after the initial infection. My friend had had malaria several times. "It's the best way to lose weight," she…

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  This Malaria-Like Parasite Is Spreading in North America

Nevertheless, one thing I knew I was safe from in the U.S. was parasites -- parasites! You have to be living in a rainforest or alongside the Nile to get those, right? So wrong.

American Lyme Disease Foundation

The clinical features of babesiosis are similar to those of malaria and range in severity from asymptomatic to rapidly fatal. Most patients experience a viral infection–like illness with fever, chills, sweats, myalgia, arthralgia, anorexia, nausea, vomiting, or fatigue.

Lyme and Tick-Borne Diseases Research Center

In the United States, the primary agent of human babesiosis is Babesia microti, which is transmitted by the bite of Ixodes scapularis, the same tick species that vectors Lyme disease.

LymeDisease.org

Babesiosis is typically treated with a combination of anti-malarial drugs and antibiotics. Relapses sometimes occur after treatment and must be retreated.

TickEncounter

Currently, Lyme disease is the most frequently reported arthropod-borne disease in the United States, however, far fewer cases of human babesiosis have been reported than those of Lyme disease

CDC

Babesiosis is caused by microscopic parasites that infect red blood cells. Most human cases of Babesia infection in the United States are caused by the parasite Babesia microti. Occasional cases caused by other species (types) of Babesia have been detected. Babesia microti is spread in nature by Ixodes scapularis ticks (also called blacklegged ticks or deer ticks).

Merck Manual

abesiosis is infection with Babesia sp. Infections can be asymptomatic or cause a malaria-like illness with fever and hemolytic anemia. Disease is most severe in asplenic patients, the elderly, and patients with AIDS. Diagnosis is by identification of Babesia in a peripheral blood smear, serologic test, or PCR. Treatment, when needed, is with azithromycin plus atovaquone or with quinine plus clindamycin.

Patient

Babesiosis is an uncommon but worldwide vector-borne malaria-like parasitic disease caused by protozoan parasites of the genus Babesia. Babesiosis is an infection of rodents, cattle, wild animals and man and is spread by the bites of ixodid (hard-bodied) ticks which are also the vectors for Lyme disease (25% of babesiosis patients have both diseases).

Stanford

For centuries, Babesiosis was known to be a serious illness for wild and domestic animals especially cattle. Victor Babes, a Romanian scientist who first documented the disease in 1888, described symptoms of a severe hemolytic illness seen uniquely in cattle and sheep.

StatPearls

Of the more than 100 Babesia species known to infect vertebrate animals, only a few have been documented to cause infection in humans. Ixodes ticks are the vector, and the primary reservoirs are typically small vertebrates such as rodents (particularly the white-foot mouse in the U.S.) and birds and the interaction between the vector and primary reservoir is required to complete the organism's life cycle.

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