Infection with a babesia-like organism in northern California

Article Abstract:

A babesia-like organism previously unseen has been identified in human infections in the western United States. Babesial parasites are tick-transmitted organisms that can infect animals. Two major types, Babesia divergens and B. microti, are known to affect humans. Four people from the western US, who had each had their spleen removed, became ill after infection by an almost identical babesia-like organism labeled WA1. Genetic tests of the organism showed that it was most closely related to a babesia infection common to canines, B. gibsoni, from a phylogenic cluster that also includes theileria. Tests of two groups of people in different areas of northern California found that 16% in one area and 3.5% of those in another were seropositive for the WA1 organism. Infection can cause no symptoms in some people, and has been implicated in at least one death.

Diagnosis, Zoonoses, Protozoan diseases

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A fatal case of babesiosis in Missouri: identification of another piroplasm that infects humans

Article Abstract:

A newly identified, fatal strain of babesiosis in a human may be related to one that infects cattle in Europe. Babesiosis is a parasitic disease carried by ticks to humans. Researchers evaluated the case of a 73-year-old Missouri man who had had his spleen removed and who later died of babesiosis. He did not know of any contact with ticks, but he had had a job feeding dairy cattle about eight years prior. Before he was treated for babesiosis, samples of his blood were injected into various laboratory animals to see if they developed babesiosis. None of them did. Tests revealed that the man was infected with a strain of babesiosis known as MO1, which may be related to Babesia divergens, a strain that infects cattle and humans in Europe. MO1 may not be related to B. microti and WA1, the strains which have previously been identified in the U.S.

Causes of, Tick-borne diseases

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