Human Babesiosis on Nantucket Island

Abstract

Between 20 July and 15 Octoboer 1975, five cases of human infection with Babesia microti were diagnosed on Nantucket Island, Massachusetts. The illness was characterized by fever, drenching sweats, shaking chills, myalgia, arthralgia, extreme fatigue, and a mild-to-moderate hemolytic anemia. None of the patients had a history of splenetomy. Although all patients responded symptomatically to treatment with oral chloroquine phosphate, parasitemia and fatigue frequently persisted for several weeks to months.

Transfusion-TransmittedBabesiaspp.: Bull's-Eye onBabesia microti

“…As described above in this review's introduction, historical evidence suggests that B. microti initially became established on offshore islands of New England (22,106,124) and then moved to neighboring coastal communities of Connecticut, Massachusetts, New York, and Rhode Island (38,56,129). The EU-1 parasite, which was responsible for the first cases of human babesiosis in Italy and Austria and a subsequent case in Germany, has been described as a distinct agent that is closely related to B. divergens (44,47).…”

Babesiosis

“…The most severe infections occur predominantly in the elderly and in splenectomized or immunocompromised hosts. There appears to be a correlation between the severity of the infection and the age of the patient (10,197). In patients infected with B. microti, the ages have ranged from 3 weeks to 86 years, with the majority of clinically apparent cases falling in the range from 50 to 60 years (108).…”

“…Examination of thin blood smears for the presence of parasites within erythrocytes is the most frequently used technique for diagnosing both infections with B. microti in the United States and infections with B. divergens in Europe (20,55,69,197). Peripheral blood smears are stained with Wright's or Giemsa stain.…”

“…B. microti infections can have parasitemias that are detectable to levels as high as 85% (on peripheral blood smears). The duration of detectable parasitemia on blood smears varies from 3 weeks (3) to 12 weeks (197), with the longest duration of smear positivity being 7 months for a splenectomized patient (221).…”

Babesia cameli as a New Species infecting Camels (Camelus dromedarius) at Assiut Locality

“…Symptoms of the disease appear between 1 to 4 weeks after a person is bitten by infected ticks. The patient suffers from a gradual onset of malaise, anorexia, fatigue, mild to moderate fever, sweats, and myalgia [4,5] on classical methods. The recent description of Theileria youngi from rodents in California [6], which previously might have been assigned to B. microti based on morphology, serves as an example of the utility of DNA-based methods as a complement to microscopy and life cycle information.…”