TY - JOUR
T1 - Transfusion-transmitted babesiosis in Washington state
T2 - First reported case caused by a WA1-type parasite
AU - Herwaldt, Barbara L.
AU - Kjemtrup, Anne M.
AU - Conrad, Patricia A.
AU - Barnes, Robert C.
AU - Wilson, Marianna
AU - McCarthy, Maureen G.
AU - Sayers, Merlyn H.
AU - Eberhard, Mark L.
PY - 1997
Y1 - 1997
N2 - Most cases of babesiosis reported in the United States have been tickborne and caused by Babesia microti, the etiologic agent of all previously described transfusion-transmitted cases. A 76-year-old man with the first recognized case of transfusion-transmitted infection with the recently identified WA1-type Babesia parasite is described. The subject received multiple blood transfusions in 1994. Indirect immunofluorescent antibody testing of serum from 57 blood donors implicated a 34-year-old man (WA1 titer, 1:65,536) whose donation had been used for packed red cells. Isolates of the organisms that infected the recipient and the donor, both of whom were spleen-intact residents of Washington State, were obtained by hamster inoculation. The DNA sequence of a 536-bp region of the nuclear small subunit-rRNA gene of both isolates was identical to that of WA1 (isolated in 1991 from the index WA1 case-patient). Effective measures for preventing transmission of babesiosis by blood transfusion are needed.
AB - Most cases of babesiosis reported in the United States have been tickborne and caused by Babesia microti, the etiologic agent of all previously described transfusion-transmitted cases. A 76-year-old man with the first recognized case of transfusion-transmitted infection with the recently identified WA1-type Babesia parasite is described. The subject received multiple blood transfusions in 1994. Indirect immunofluorescent antibody testing of serum from 57 blood donors implicated a 34-year-old man (WA1 titer, 1:65,536) whose donation had been used for packed red cells. Isolates of the organisms that infected the recipient and the donor, both of whom were spleen-intact residents of Washington State, were obtained by hamster inoculation. The DNA sequence of a 536-bp region of the nuclear small subunit-rRNA gene of both isolates was identical to that of WA1 (isolated in 1991 from the index WA1 case-patient). Effective measures for preventing transmission of babesiosis by blood transfusion are needed.
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U2 - 10.1086/593812
DO - 10.1086/593812
M3 - Article
C2 - 9129100
AN - SCOPUS:0030956409
SN - 0022-1899
VL - 175
SP - 1259
EP - 1262
JO - Journal of Infectious Diseases
JF - Journal of Infectious Diseases
IS - 5
ER -