First Demonstration of Babesia Parasitizing in Human in Japan

Ocorrência de Babesia sp em pequenos roedores no Brasil

“…A babesiose é uma doença cosmopolita e sua transmissão de animais infectados para o homem tem sido bem demonstrada, sendo atualmente considerada uma doença emergente (Brasseur e Gorenflot, 1992), já documentada em muitos países (Montenegro-James, 1992;Gorenflot et al, 1998;Saito-Ito et al, 1999). No Brasil, o primeiro registro de caso de infecção humana por Babesia sp.…”

Identification of a New Type of Babesia Species in Wild Rats ( Bandicota indica ) in Chiang Mai Province, Thailand

“…Therefore, babesiosis in areas to which malaria is endemic might be misdiagnosed as drug-resistant malaria. From this standpoint, the identification of babesial parasites in wild rats in Chiang Mai, Thailand, where malaria is endemic, seems to deserve attention, considering that recent Asian cases of human babesiosis emerged in Taiwan and Japan, where B. microti-like parasites had earlier been identified in rodents (19)(20)(21).…”

“…Cases of human babesiosis have been recently reported consecutively in Taiwan and Japan (19)(20)(21). In Taiwan, Manwell and Kuntz identified piroplasms in bandicoot rats, Bandicota indica, and in spiny rats, Rattus coxinga, in 1964 (7), and the first Taiwanese patient was reported in 1997 (21).…”

“…In Japan, the emergence of human babesiosis has been expected since the early 1980s, when a B. microti-like parasite was found to have infected wild Apodemus speciosus and Apodemus argenteus rodents (24). Saito-Ito et al reported that the first human case, which occurred in 1999, was caused by a geographical variant of B. microti that was traced back to a blood transfusion (19,20).…”

Identification and Characterization of Putative Secreted Antigens fromBabesia microti

“…Several species have been shown to infect humans (10,34), although Babesia microti is the species most frequently identified. The defined distribution of B. microti is constantly expanding; although the parasite was originally identified as being endemic to the northeastern United States and parts of the Midwest, new reports have expanded the distribution to as far south as New Jersey in the United States (6,36) and many parts of Europe (4,8,15,30,31) and Japan (20,27,28,35,37).…”