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Transfusion-Transmitted Babesiosis in Washington State: First Reported Case Caused by a WA1-Type Parasite

1997; Oxford University Press; Volume: 175; Issue: 5 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1086/593812

1537-6613

Barbara L. Herwaldt, Anne M. Kjemtrup, Patricia A. Conrad, Robert C. Barnes, Marianna Wilson, Mary K. McCarthy, Merlyn Sayers, Mark L. Eberhard,

Insect symbiosis and bacterial influences

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 WAl-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.