Babesiosis

If Not Lyme Disease, What Caused This Man’s Fever?

The patient had something known as babesiosis, a disease caused by a parasite, Babesia microti. The bug is transmitted by the deer tick — Ixodes scapularis, the same tick that carries Lyme and Rocky Mountain spotted fever and is typically found in the Northeast and upper Midwest.

Ticks: They’re not just for hikers anymore

About 20 percent of blacklegged tick nymphs carry Lyme, with between 5 and 15 percent harboring other diseases. After the SPECT results, however, he was tested again and got a positive result for babesiosis, a malaria-like tick-borne parasitic disease that causes red blood cells to burst.

How an emerging tick-borne pathogen evades detection

Human babesiosis is an emerging infectious disease transmitted to humans by ticks. A team of Yale researchers has discovered how Babesia microti, one of the two Babesia parasite species that transmit the disease in the United States, communicates with its host.

Parasites in the blood supply, and 7 other things you need to know about Babesia

Babesia can be deadly if it goes untreated. Here are some possible complications: low and unstable blood pressure; altered mental status; severe hemolytic anemia (hemolysis); very low platelet count (thrombocytopenia); disseminated intravascular coagulation (also known as “DIC” or consumptive coagulopathy), which can lead to blood clots and bleeding; and malfunction of vital organs (such as the kidneys, liver, lungs, and heart).

A growing, hidden danger is seeping into the blood supply

What’s more, there's "no way of knowing" how many infected people are donating blood, according to a major blood donation center Tech Insider contacted. There's also no large-scale, US-government-approved way to test for Babesia in the 15.7 million blood donations transfused into 5 million Americans every year.

A New Tick-Borne Parasite That Invades Red Blood Cells: Beware Babesiosis

Similar to malaria, Babesiosis is caused by microscopic protozoa called Babesia which can reproduce inside red blood cells. Most cases of Babesia infection are caused by Babesia microti, but another type, Babesia divergens, has also been identified and may cause even more serious disease. Two types of ticks, deer ticks and blacklegged ticks, can carry Babesia parasites.

Another Tick-Borne Disease to Guard Against

“Babesiosis is already a worldwide disease, though the United States has the most cases so far,” Dr. Krause said in an interview. “Its geographical distribution is growing, and we think over time it will become increasingly important relative to Lyme disease.”

Babesia and Lyme Disease

Many people have never heard of Babesia, but it is a relatively common tick borne infection in the world of Lyme Disease.

Babesia, re-visited

Although there is a great deal of overlap between the symptoms of Lyme and Babesia, certain symptoms are quite specific for babesiosis, inlcuding: recurrent flu like symptoms with low grade fevers, air hunger and night sweats.

Babesia: The malaria-like disease in your yard, part 1

A few weeks before, dissatisfied with a plateau in my treatment response, my returning migraines and fatigue, she'd drawn blood and sent it to Quest Lab for a babesia test. "When Lyme disease patients don't get well," she told me, "coinfection with babesiosis is often the cause." Now the results had come back, and as with my Lyme ELISA, antibodies were four times the cutoff for positive-sky-high.

Hospitals Knowingly Dispense Poisoned Blood

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?

Human Babesiosis

Human babesiosis is an emerging tick-borne infectious disease caused by protozoa of the genus Babesia that are obligate parasites of red blood cells. Long recognized as pathogens imposing a significant health burden on domesticated animals, Babesia spp. increasingly have been identified over the last 50 years as a cause of infection in people throughout the world.

Once Rare, Infection by Tick Bites Spreads

Many people who are infected with the parasite have no symptoms at all, while others experience mild to moderate flu-like symptoms that may last for a few days or as long as six months. “But some people get so sick that they wind up hospitalized...

Silent, Tick-Borne Disease on the Rise

The disease is still less of a public health concern than Lyme disease, another tick-borne illness, Wormser said. But, although Lyme disease can cause complications including paralysis, doctors usually aren't worried about that Lyme disease will be fatal, Wormser said. That's not the case for babesiosis, in which some patients can become "dramatically ill," Wormser said.

Well, Babs, you’re trickier than I thought

It has been well-documented that the tick-borne protozoan parasite Babesia can be contracted through blood transfusions. Blood centers aren’t required to test donated blood for Babesia, but this may change in the future, as Babesia infections contracted through transfusions are on the rise. So if we were to test all donors for Babesia prior to donation, which tests should we rely on to detect this pesky parasite?

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.