Melanie Reber
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posted
Three Sick With Rare Tick-Borne Illness
Virginia State health officials say three people have been infected with a rare illness after receiving a blood transfusion. The three patients have been diagnosed with an infection called babesiosis. Babesiosis is tick-borne and carries malaria-type symptoms with it. The main carrier of babesiosis are black leg ticks, also known as deer ticks, and they are common in Virginia.
Health officials have tracked the tainted blood back to a donor from Charlottesville that is a frequent hiker. The illness can be deadly for someone with severe health issues, just the type that would likely need a blood transfusion.
Babesiosis infections from blood transfusions are extremely rare. Nationally there are 10 million blood donations every year and only 70 times in history has there been a babesiosis infection. Officials point out this is the first time it's ever happened in Virginia.
Black leg ticks are becoming more and more common in Virginia, which leads to two major problems. The state doesn't have the funds to track and collect the ticks and a test to screen for the illness doesn't exist.
The Virginia Department of Health is looking into ways to safeguard the blood supply to prevent other infections in the future. The Center for Disease Control has been made aware of this case.
Melanie Reber
Frequent Contributor (5K+ posts)
Member # 3707
posted
Three in Va. sick with rare tickborne illness
By Tammie Smith
Published: August 7, 2009
State health officials are investigating whether three people sick with a rare illness carried by ticks were infected through blood transfusions.
The three have been diagnosed with a tickborne infection called babesiosis, a malaria-like illness caused when parasites infect red blood cells. People can be infected with babesiosis and have no symptoms, and there is no approved test to screen blood donations for it, health officials said.
Getting bitten by a black-legged tick, also called a deer tick, which is found in Virginia, is the main way humans are infected. However, blood donations and breastfeeding are also possible modes of transmission. The disease is more common in the Northeast and the upper Midwest, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
"There is a wide spectrum of illness," said Katie Kurkjian, a veterinarian and epidemiologist at the Virginia Department of Health.
"Many people are asymptomatic. Some develop flulike illness -- fever, chills, sweats, body aches and so forth," she said. "It depends on the immune status of the patients, underlying factors that they might have, their ability to fight off infections."
Health department spokesman Phil Giaramita said the department is not aware of any additional infections related to the case. He would not confirm that they were in central Virginia.
"The blood center, donor, and hospital have been fully cooperative during this investigation. This is a highly unusual case and does not affect the safety of the blood supply," he said.
According to the CDC, recommended treatment includes prescription medications, which can be very effective.
posted
Melanie, you may recall this article too...
Transfusion-acquired parasite infection up in U.S.
Mon Jan 19, 2009 10:23am EST
NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Since the end of 2005, the US Food and Drug Administration has received nine reports of deaths due to a parasitic infection called babesiosis transmitted by blood transfusions, following nearly a decade in which no cases were reported.
Babesiosis, caused by the parasite Babesia, is usually transmitted through the bite of a tick, the same tick responsible for Lyme disease, although transmission via blood transfusion has also been reported. The disease is hardest on the elderly and people with compromised immune systems.
Doctors should consider babesiosis in immunocompromised patients fever with a history of recent transfusion, Dr. Diane M. Gubernot at the FDA in Rockville, Maryland, and colleagues advise in a report in the medical journal Clinical Infectious Diseases.
Gubernot and colleagues queried FDA safety surveillance systems for trends in babesiosis reporting since 1997. Nine of 10 deaths they uncovered occurred between 2005 and 2008. The patient ages ranged from 43 to 88 years.
Most of the patients developed altered mental status, kidney failure, or respiratory distress, with symptoms appearing anywhere from 2.5 to 7 weeks following blood transfusion. Once symptoms developed, death followed within 5 to 17 days. Implicated blood donations were identified, and all donors tested positive for the infection.
In addition to the nine fatal cases, the number of reports of potential transfusion-transmitted Babesia infection and post-donation babesiosis rose from zero in 1999 to 25 in 2007.
Gubernot and her associates note that Babesia species can survive blood banking procedures, including freezing.
SOURCE: Clinical Infectious Diseases, January 1, 2009
-------------------- My biofilm film: www.whyamistillsick.com 2004 Mycoplasma Pneumonia 2006 Positive after 2 years of hell 2006-08 Marshall Protocol. Killed many bug species 2009 - Beating candida, doing better Lahey Clinic in Mass: what a racquet! Posts: 830 | From Mass. | Registered: Aug 2006
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Melanie Reber
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Thanks Cold Feet,
Yes, I am well aware of this issue... what gets to me is that others are NOT. And it is inexcusable that this continues despite increasing reports of transfusion associated illness and fatalities.
Health department spokesman Phil Giaramita said the department is not aware of any additional infections related to the case. He would not confirm that they were in central Virginia.
"The blood center, donor, and hospital have been fully cooperative during this investigation. This is a highly unusual case and does not affect the safety of the blood supply," he said.
According to the CDC, recommended treatment includes prescription medications, which can be very effective.
"We are convening this workshop at the present time because FDA has observed a recent increase in the number of reports of transfusion-transmitted babesiosis..."
"...During the last 40 years, more than 60 cases of transfusion-transmitted babesiosis have been recognized in the United States. In years 2006 and 2007, FDA received a total of five reports of fatal transfusion-transmitted babesiosis (primary or contributory cause of death) in the United States..."
posted
When i was asymptomatic with babesia, I donated TONS of blood cause I was poor and needed money. I never realized I had it though and I know some unlucky souls got my blood (sorry whoever you were). So those statistics are absolute crap, we all know most of the time this happens they never figure it out.
Posts: 499 | From Indiana | Registered: Oct 2007
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Melanie Reber
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posted
Precisely, Pryorka...
and how many more of us have done the same?
Posts: 7052 | From Colorado | Registered: Mar 2003
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AliG
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
Member # 9734
posted
RARE?!!!!
ROFLMAO
That still cracks me up!
It's not endemic in Middlesex County NJ you know.
Please look at the CDC map & tell me how that works. These brilliantly trained ticks know to go up one side, back down & up the other. It's simply amazing!
morons
The ignorance is rampant.
-------------------- Note: I'm NOT a medical professional. The information I share is from my own personal research and experience. Please do not construe anything I share as medical advice, which should only be obtained from a licensed medical practitioner. Posts: 4881 | From Middlesex County, NJ | Registered: Jul 2006
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posted
AliG right it's kind of like the NJ housewives where they say gramma or bubbie or something got Lyme disease in Germany...I'm like sure she did...more like her back yard in NJ...lol
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