title: Human babesiosis in Ireland: further observations and the medical significance of this infection.
abstract: Three splenectomized persons in Yugoslavia, California, and Ireland have been reported to be infected by three different Babesia species; two cases were fatal. In a study of the site where the fatal infection was contracted in Ireland, blood samples from 36 persons who had recently been bitten by ticks were inoculated into two splenectomized calves; no response to Babesia divergens was detected. Field-collected Ixodes ricinus ticks inoculated into another splenectomized calf resulted in fever and recovery of the agent of tick-borne fever (Cytoecetes phagocytophilia). This attempt to determine the presence of latent infection in human beings with intact spleens should be repeated on a larger scale in areas with a demonstrably high incidence of Babesia in ticks and animals. Few places in the world are free of piroplasms; their presence may present a hazard to splenectomized persons or to those whose splenic function is deficient.
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001404:Babesiosis / Q000097:blood / Q000453:epidemiology*; D002140:California; D002417:Cattle; D006801:Humans; D007494:Ireland; D008297:Male; D010963:Plasmodium falciparum / Q000302:isolation & purification; D013156:Splenectomy; D013984:Tick Infestations / Q000382:microbiology; D013987:Ticks; D015022:Yugoslavia; D015047:Zoonoses