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Human Babesiosis in the United States
- TRENTON K. RUEBUSH II, M.D.; and
- ANDREW SPIELMAN, SC.D.
- Bureau of Tropical Diseases, Center for Disease Control, Atlanta, Georgia
- Department of Tropical Public Health, Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, Massachusetts
Excerpt
Since 1969, when the first case of human babesiosis was identified in the United States, a total of 15 such infections have been described. Thirteen of these were caused by Babesia microti, a parasite of wild rodents, and were acquired on either Nantucket or Shelter Islands, members in a chain of islands that lie along the southern coast of New England. The report by Miller, Neva, and Gill in this issue (p. 200) of a case of human babesiosis acquired on Martha's Vineyard adds a third island to this focus of zoonotic disease. This cluster of human infections with B.
