Babesiosis and Infection with Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV)

Excerpt

To the editor: We report a severe and recurrent case of babesiosis in a nonsplenectomized man positive for antibody to the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). To our knowledge, this is the first report of babesiosis in a patient with HIV infection.

A 40-year-old white man who was known to have antibody against HIV since at least April 1980, presented with a 3-week history of fever and a 5-day history of abdominal pain. Physical examination showed a temperature of 38.3 °C, pulse of 132/min, mild oral candidiasis, and hepatosplenomegaly. Laboratory studies showed a hemoglobin level of 8.0 g; hematocrit, 23.9%; leukocyte