Treatment of Transfusion-Transmitted Babesiosis by Exchange Transfusion

Abstract

BABESIOSIS is a malaria-like illness produced by tick-borne protozoa that can cause a spectrum of disease in human beings, varying from subclinical infection to severe febrile illness with hemolytic anemia, hemoglobinuria, and renal failure.1 , 2 The severest symptoms, and some fatal cases, have occurred in splenectomized persons. Effective chemotherapy is lacking. Babesia microti is the responsible agent in Massachusetts. It is transmitted by Ixodes dammini ticks.3 , 4 Feral mice are reservoir hosts.5 Transmissibility of B. microti by inoculation of infected human blood into hamsters and the occurrence of asymptomatic cases in human beings has led to the expectation that transfusion-induced babesiosis would . . .