1/8. Transfusion-associated transmission of babesiosis in new york State.BACKGROUND: babesiosis can be life-threatening in immunocompromised individuals. Although the disease is usually transmitted by tick bite, more than 20 cases have been reported of infection transmitted by transfusion of blood or blood components obtained from apparently healthy donors from endemic areas in the united states. This report describes several recent cases of transfusion-transmitted babesiosis in new york State. STUDY DESIGN AND methods: Transfusion-associated incidents of babesiosis infection were identified and investigated. Seroprevalence of babesiosis in healthy blood donors in a highly endemic area was ascertained. RESULTS: In three incidents, babesiosis was diagnosed in five of eight patients given infected blood: two premature infants, an elderly patient with gastrointestinal bleeding, and two patients with thalassemia. Seroprevalence in blood donors on Shelter Island (Suffolk County, eastern Long Island), a highly endemic area, was 4.3 percent in May 1998. CONCLUSIONS: Infected donors lived in endemic areas and were asymptomatic with no history of tick bite. Blood collected in January 1997 from one donor was infectious. Those transfusion recipients who were infected were neonatal, elderly, or chronically transfused patients. babesiosis should be included in the differential diagnosis of febrile illness in immunocompromised recipients of blood transfusion, particularly in the Northeastern united states.- - - - - - - - - - ranking = 1keywords = transmission (Clic here for more details about this article) |
2/8. Investigation of transfusion transmission of a WA1-type babesial parasite to a premature infant in california.BACKGROUND: A premature infant in california developed respiratory distress associated with infection with a protozoal parasite, Babesia. The infant had received two blood transfusions, one from the father and one from an anonymous donor (Donor A). This study describes the follow-up required to identify the source and species of Babesia that infected the infant. STUDY DESIGN AND methods: At the time of the infant's illness, whole blood from the infant, father, and mother was evaluated for Babesia infection. Similar evaluation of whole blood from Donor A was performed 2 months after the suspected donation to the infant. Samples were tested using blood smear examination, serology, PCR, and hamster inoculation. Identity of the recovered Babesia parasites was confirmed by dna amplification by PCR, genetic sequencing of the 18S gene, and phylogenetic analysis. RESULTS: WA1-type Babesia was recovered from the infant. Neither parent was the source of infection. serology and hamster inoculation confirmed WA1-type Babesia infection in Donor A. dna sequences of the 18S gene from the infant and donor isolates were 100% identical. CONCLUSION: WA1-type Babesia infections may be difficult to detect among blood donors because such infections can be subclinical. This is the second WA1-type Babesia transmission via blood transfusion and the first in an infant. physicians in the western united states should consider Babesia as a possible cause of nonspecific febrile illness after a blood transfusion.- - - - - - - - - - ranking = 1.25keywords = transmission (Clic here for more details about this article) |
3/8. Transmission of babesia microti in minnesota through four blood donations from the same donor over a 6-month period.BACKGROUND: babesiosis is a tick-borne zoonosis caused by intraerythrocytic protozoa. More than 40 US cases of babesia microti infection acquired by blood transfusion have been reported. This report describes the identification of a transfusion-associated case of babesiosis and the subsequent identification of the infected blood donor and three other infected recipients of cellular blood components from three other donations by this donor. STUDY DESIGN AND methods: serum specimens from the donors of blood that had been made into cellular components received by the index recipient and from other recipients of such components from the implicated donor were tested by the indirect fluorescent antibody (IFA) assay for antibodies to B. microti. Whole blood from IFA-positive persons was tested by PCR for B. microti dna. RESULTS: IFA testing of serum from 31 of 36 donors implicated a 45-year-old man (titer, 1 in 256), whose donation had been used for RBCs. He likely became infected when bitten by ticks while camping in minnesota in June 1999 and had donated blood four times thereafter. As demonstrated by PCR, he remained parasitemic for at least 10 months. Of the five other surviving recipients of cellular blood components from the implicated donor, three recipients (one for each of the three other donations) had become infected through either RBC or platelet transfusions. CONCLUSIONS: babesiosis should be included in the differential diagnosis of posttransfusion febrile illness, and effective means for preventing transmission by blood transfusion are needed.- - - - - - - - - - ranking = 0.25keywords = transmission (Clic here for more details about this article) |
4/8. babesiosis in wisconsin. A new focus of disease transmission.A confirmed case of human babesiosis was identified in August 1983 in a 54-year-old asplenic wisconsin resident. babesia microti was identified as the causative agent by blood smear morphology and hamster inoculation techniques. The patient's wife had clinically confirmed lyme disease in 1981 and had serologic evidence (immunofluorescent antibody to a B microti titer of 1:1,024) of recent Babesia infection in August 1983. mice (peromyscus species) trapped on the patients' property and elsewhere in their wisconsin county of residence were infected with B microti. lyme disease and babesiosis have the same tick vector and animal reservoir; serum samples from 116 wisconsin and minnesota residents with clinically confirmed lyme disease between 1980 and 1983 were tested, and none were found to have concurrent Babesia infection. This area of wisconsin is identified as a new focus for babesiosis transmission, but the risk of transmission seems to be low.- - - - - - - - - - ranking = 1.5keywords = transmission (Clic here for more details about this article) |
5/8. babesiosis in pregnancy.babesiosis is a malaria-like illness due to intraerythrocytic protozoan parasites. To the authors' knowledge, this unusual disease has not previously been described in a pregnant woman. Herein is reported the case of a gravid woman with an intact spleen who developed infection with babesia microti in the fifth month of gestation. Her illness resolved following supportive care only, and evidence of transmission of disease to the fetus was not found.- - - - - - - - - - ranking = 0.25keywords = transmission (Clic here for more details about this article) |
6/8. Morphologic and clinical observations in human infection with babesia microti.On admission to the hospital, a splenectomized man was found to have 85% of his erythrocytes parasitized by babesia microti. His extensive parasitemia allowed for direct study of the morphology and ultrastructure of this organism as it appears in human infection; the need for animal inoculation and rescue techniques was thus eliminated. Positive characteristics (other than the tetrad form) that are diagnostic for babesiosis were identified. By transmission and scanning electron microscopy, parasite-induced changes in the erythrocyte membrane were observed; these alterations may explain the hemolysis seen in babesiosis. Factors that may have allowed the patient to sustain such high-level parasitemia are considered. The experience with this patient confirms that exchange transfusion is a reliable, rapid method for reduction of the parasite load in serious infection with B microti.- - - - - - - - - - ranking = 0.25keywords = transmission (Clic here for more details about this article) |
7/8. Human babesiosis in taiwan: asymptomatic infection with a babesia microti-like organism in a Taiwanese woman.An asymptomatic Babesia infection was confirmed by laboratory diagnoses. The intraerythrocytic protozoan (designed TW1) isolated from a 51-year-old Taiwanese woman appeared to be morphologically consistent with small-form piroplasm, and measurements indicated that it had a body size of 1.5 to 2.5 microm in diameter. The typical features of ring, binary, and tetrad forms were observed in Giemsa-stained thin blood smears. A persistent and low-grade parasitemia was established after hamster inoculation. Indirect immunofluorescent-antibody reactivities indicate that this strain (TW1) of Babesia was serologically related to, but not identical to, the Babesia species (B. microti) that infects rodents. Antibody titers in the patient's sera combined with the clinical symptoms suggested that the present case was a chronic and subclinical babesial infection. A neighborhood human serologic survey indicated that the infection may have been acquired accidentally from an infected rodent and localized within the same family. Indeed, rodents from areas around the neighborhood were trapped, and a high prevalence (83%) of babesial infection was observed. The possible vector responsible for the transmission remains to be identified.- - - - - - - - - - ranking = 0.25keywords = transmission (Clic here for more details about this article) |
8/8. Transfusion-transmitted babesiosis in washington State: first reported case caused by a WA1-type parasite.Most cases of babesiosis reported in the united states have been tickborne and caused by babesia microti, the etiologic agent of all previously described transfusion-transmitted cases. A 76-year-old man with the first recognized case of transfusion-transmitted infection with the recently identified WA1-type Babesia parasite is described. The subject received multiple blood transfusions in 1994. Indirect immunofluorescent antibody testing of serum from 57 blood donors implicated a 34-year-old man (WA1 titer, 1:65,536) whose donation had been used for packed red cells. Isolates of the organisms that infected the recipient and the donor, both of whom were spleen-intact residents of washington State, were obtained by hamster inoculation. The dna sequence of a 536-bp region of the nuclear small subunit-rRNA gene of both isolates was identical to that of WA1 (isolated in 1991 from the index WA1 case-patient). Effective measures for preventing transmission of babesiosis by blood transfusion are needed.- - - - - - - - - - ranking = 0.25keywords = transmission (Clic here for more details about this article) |