Babesia microti lives inside red blood cells and survives standard blood-bank storage. Between 1979 and 2009, 159 of 162 reported United States transfusion-transmitted babesiosis cases were caused by B. microti, with mortality near 20 percent in immunocompromised recipients. FDA-recommended blood-donor screening in endemic states has largely closed the gap.
Babesiosis is sometimes called the malaria of the northeast: like Plasmodium, Babesia parasites invade red blood cells and rupture them,…
Because Babesia microti and Borrelia burgdorferi share the same vector and the same reservoir mice, a single Ixodes scapularis bite can…
Colorado tick fever virus infects red blood cell precursors in the bone marrow and rides inside mature erythrocytes for the cell's full…
Dermacentor reticulatus carries tick-borne encephalitis virus in parts of central and eastern Europe, and is also a principal vector of…
Tick-borne encephalitis is overwhelmingly transmitted by Ixodes ricinus and I. persulcatus bites, but small European outbreaks regularly…
Rhipicephalus sanguineus is a competent vector of Rickettsia rickettsii in the southwestern United States and northern Mexico, where…