Review Article
Update on Babesiosis
Table 2
Diagnosis of babesiosis.
| | Epidemiology |
| | – Residence in or travel to an area endemic for babesiosis | | – Ixodes tick bite | | – History of recent blood transfusion from a donor living or traveling in a Babesia endemic area |
| | Symptoms |
| | – Fever, fatigue, chills, sweats, headache, myalgia, anorexia, cough, arthralgia, nausea | | – Less common: emotional lability and depression, hyperesthesia, sore throat, abdominal pain, conjunctival injection, photophobia, weight loss |
| | Signs on physical examination |
| | – Fever | | – Splenomegaly, hepatomegaly, pallor |
| | Common laboratory diagnostic procedures |
| | – Identification of Babesia on Giemsa stained peripheral blood smears | | – Amplification of Babesia DNA in blood using polymerase chain reaction | | – Four-fold rise in Babesia antibody in acute or convalescent sera or identification of serum Babesia IgM antibody |
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