Browsing by Subject "Babesiosis"

Now showing 1 - 2 of 2
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    Chronic coinfections in patients diagnosed with chronic lyme disease: a systematic review.
    (Am J Med, 2014-11) Lantos, Paul M; Wormser, Gary P
    PURPOSE: Often, the controversial diagnosis of chronic Lyme disease is given to patients with prolonged, medically unexplained physical symptoms. Many such patients also are treated for chronic coinfections with Babesia, Anaplasma, or Bartonella in the absence of typical presentations, objective clinical findings, or laboratory confirmation of active infection. We have undertaken a systematic review of the literature to evaluate several aspects of this practice. METHODS: Five systematic literature searches were performed using Boolean operators and the PubMed search engine. RESULTS: The literature searches did not demonstrate convincing evidence of: 1) chronic anaplasmosis infection; 2) treatment-responsive symptomatic chronic babesiosis in immunocompetent persons in the absence of fever, laboratory abnormalities, and detectable parasitemia; 3) either geographically widespread or treatment-responsive symptomatic chronic infection with Babesia duncani in the absence of fever, laboratory abnormalities, and detectable parasitemia; 4) tick-borne transmission of Bartonella species; or 5) simultaneous Lyme disease and Bartonella infection. CONCLUSIONS: The medical literature does not support the diagnosis of chronic, atypical tick-borne coinfections in patients with chronic, nonspecific illnesses.
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    Shared features in the pathobiology of babesiosis and malaria.
    (Trends Parasitol, 2007-12) Krause, Peter J; Daily, Johanna; Telford, Sam R; Vannier, Edouard; Lantos, Paul; Spielman, Andrew
    The pathobiology of malaria has been extensively studied in humans but many questions remain, especially regarding fulminant disease associated with Plasmodium falciparum infection. Babesiosis, recognized since biblical times as an important disease of livestock and more recently as an emerging health problem in humans, is caused by related intraerythrocytic protozoa with a similar pathogenesis and clinical course. Recent studies of cytokine activation and erythrocyte cytoadherence in babesiosis and malaria have exploited these similarities to provide new insights into malaria pathobiology. Continued investigation of similarities and differences in the pathogenesis of babesiosis and malaria should lead to additional fundamental insights for both conditions.