Madison Area Lyme Support Group

https://insights.ovid.com/crossref?an=00006454-900000000-96882

Abstract

Three premature infants in one neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) developed transfusion-transmitted babesiosis. Two of the infants developed high-grade parasitemia. All three affected infants were treated and cured with azithromycin and atovaquone. No infant required exchange transfusion. Clinicians should be cognizant that babesiosis may be acquired via blood transfusion.

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**Comment**

Babesia is finally getting the press it deserves.  Lately there has been much on transmission by transfusion as well as deaths in patients without spleens.

https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2017/08/08/transfusion-transmitted-babesiosis-in-nonendemic-areas/   “Asymptomatic individuals with Babesia infection are able to donate blood in the United States because of the lack of specific blood donation testing. Blood products collected in Babesia-endemic areas are distributed nationally; thus, clinicians in nonendemic states may fail to include babesiosis in the differential diagnosis of a patient who had a recent transfusion history and a fever of unknown origin.”  

https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2017/08/30/babesia-spread-to-newborn/ Babesia spread congenitally

https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2017/09/25/man-dies-of-babesia/  Death in patient without spleen

https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2016/12/15/blood-screening-for-babesia/   Blood-donation screening for antibodies to and DNA from B. microti was associated with a decrease in the risk of transfusion-transmitted babesiosis.

https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2016/01/16/babesia-treatment/  Dr. Horowitz, a nationally recognized LLMD, states Babesia is one of the most tenacious coinfections he sees in his patients and that treatment often takes 9 months to a year, particularly with those also infected with Lyme disease (borrelia).  Treatment options in this link.  

http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJM199807163390304  When left untreated, silent babesial infection may persist for months or even years. Although treatment with clindamycin and quinine reduces the duration of parasitemia, infection may still persist and recrudesce and side effects are common. Improved treatments are needed.

Dr. Krause published in the New England Journal of Medicine that when a patient has Lyme and Babesia, Lyme is found three-times more frequently in the blood, proving Babesia suppresses the immune system.  http://danielcameronmd.com/babesia-and-lyme-its-worse-than-you-think/

https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2017/06/28/concurrent-babesiosis-and-lyme-in-patient/   Dr. Horowitz warns that due to this immune suppression, patients with Rheumatoid Arthritis or Lupus and are on immunosuppressant drugs, if they have Babesia, could get much worse. The strain, B. divergens, causes a higher mortality rate and more severe symptoms, and if left untreated, this strain can develop into shock-like symptoms with pulmonary edema and renal failure.