introduction babesiosis is caused by apicomplexa parasites of the genus babesia. humans are commonly infected by babesia through tick bites. there is limited information available about babesia infection of humans in china. the aim of this study was to isolate the pathogen from a patient with severe parasitemia. case presentation blood samples were observed by transmission electron microscopy (...

Understanding host-pathogen-tick interactions remains a vitally important issue that might be better understood by basic research focused on each of the dyad interplays. Pathogens gain access to either the vector or host during tick feeding when ticks are confronted with strong hemostatic, inflammatory and immune responses. A prominent example of this is the Babesia spp.-tick-vertebrate host re...

Babesiosis is a tick-borne disease caused by different species of intraerythrocytic protozoan parasites within the genus Babesia. Different species of Babesia are described as potentially zoonotic and cause a malaria-like disease mainly in immunocompromised humans. Interest in the zoonotic potential of Babesia is growing and babesiosis has been described by some authors as an emergent zoonotic ...

Background: R. vitalii causes a remerging tick-borne disease known as rangeliosis. The parasite is not always identifiable in blood smears, especially in the chronic phase of the disease. Low parasitemia levels have been observed in cases of rangeliosis caused by natural infection, even in acute situations, while hyperparasitemia has been reported only in acute experimental infection. This pape...

The filarial parasite of cattle, Onchocerca gibsoni, has been used to establish procedures of antigen identification with a view of applying these techniques to studies on human filarial parasites. Emphasis has been placed on methods suitable for use with small numbers of parasites. Microfilariae (mf) of O. gibsoni were extracted from nodular worms, purified and 125I-labeled using IODO-GEN in s...

We have designed and performed a new PCR method based on the 18S rRNA in order to individuate the presence and the identity of Babesia parasites. Out of 1159 Ixodes ricinus (Acari: Ixodidae) ticks collected in four areas of Switzerland, nine were found to contain Babesia DNA. Sequencing of the short amplicon obtained (411-452 bp) allowed the identification of three human pathogenic species: Bab...

BACKGROUND Babesiosis is an uncommon but emerging tick-borne disease caused by the genus Babesia. In this case study, we report a case of human infection with a novel Babesia sp. in China. FINDINGS The patient in question had been suffering from repetitive occurrences of mild fever of unknown origin and fatigue for 10 years. Ring forms, tetrads, and one or two dots of chromatin or trophozoite...