Up to 20 percent of those infected by a malaria-like tick-borne disease are fatally afflicted, according to experts.
In the United States, human cases of babesiosis have more than doubled in a decade, a trend that some attribute to climate change and the clearance of more land for development.
Each year, only about 2,500 cases are officially diagnosed, but scientists warn that many more go undetected because physicians do not know how to test for them.
In summer, when mosquitoes are most active, Midwest, Northeast, and West infections are rising.
This week, experts also warned of an increase in cases of the Powassan virus. Its a tick-borne illness that can cause permanent brain injury and disability.
The first high-quality genome of a disease-causing bacterium was deciphered by University of California, Riverside researchers.
According to them, this will aid in the development of diagnostic tools and novel treatments for the disease, which can also result in organ failure and an enlarged spleen and liver.
Babesia is a unicellular organism that typically circulates between ticks and deer, but can also infect humans through tick infections.
One to six weeks after a puncture, patients exhibit symptoms that initially resemble malaria, including fever, headache, and muscle pains.
However, they can cause organ failure, spleen or liver enlargement, and anaemia due to pathogens destroying red blood cells.
According to estimates, approximately 0.5% of all patients perish from the disease. In contrast, the mortality rate among the elderly and immunocompromised can reach 20 percent.
The disease is treatable with the antibacterial and antiparasitic medications azithromycin and atovaquone.
The Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) report that approximately 2,500 cases of the infection are diagnosed annually, up from approximately 1,000 cases a decade ago.
However, the agency issued a warning last month that the disease’s prevalence was increasing in eight of ten states that monitor for the infection, particularly in the northeast.
However, many cases are overlooked because patients may also have Lyme disease. While most physicians are aware of Lyme disease, fewer are aware of babesiosis and its warning indications, according to experts.
Infected healthy individuals are also unlikely to develop symptoms.
According to scientists from Columbia University, up to 20% of older patients who contract the disease perish from it.
Two types of microorganisms cause babesiosis: babesia microtia, which is transmitted by the deer tick during the summer, and B. duncani, which is transmitted by the winter tick in the autumn and early winter.
In their investigation, scientists analyzed B. Duncani’s genetics for the first time.
They used a computer to build its three-dimensional structure and found it resembled Plasmodium falciparum, the malaria parasite.
They speculated that this may have aided the evolution of resistance mechanisms.
Dr. Stefano Lonardi, a geneticist who participated in the study, stated: ‘Once the genome is assembled and annotated. It can provide valuable information such as how the genes are organized. Which genes are transcribed during infection, and how the pathogen avoids the host’s immune system.’
