Babesiosis

Most immunocompetent patients experience mild to moderate illness or are asymptomatic. Symptoms usually begin 1-4 weeks after being bitten by an infected tick, or 1 week to 6 months after a transfusion with contaminated blood. The most common symptoms are fever (that can reach up to 40.9 øC and may be accompanied by splenomegaly), malaise and fatigue. Other common manifestations include chills, sweats, headache, myalgia, arthralgia, nonproductive cough, nausea, and anorexia. Less frequently, some may experience sore throat, photophobia, vomiting, weight loss and depression. Symptoms can last 1-2 weeks but fatigue may persist for several months. In the immunocompomised or the elderly, more severe and prolonged infections with relapses can occur that require hospital admission. B. divergens and B. duncani infections are generally severe and often occur in people who lack a spleen. Complications occur in about half of hospitalized patients and include disseminated intravascular coagulopathy and acute respiratory distress syndrome and less frequently liver, renal or congestive heart failure, coma and death.