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Babesiosis
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Babesiosis is an infectious disease caused by Babesia, a protozoan, that is, a single-celled parasite that settles inside the red blood cells, the erythrocytes that carry oxygen through the blood.
The cycle is well defined. The forms that get in, called sporozoites, invade the erythrocytes, and inside them they mature and multiply by binary fission, which means splitting in two over and over. The daughter forms, the merozoites, rupture the red cell on their way out and invade others, and the cycle starts again. The parasite does not attack the red cell from outside: it moves in and breaks it open on the way out.
The most common way in is a tick bite, most often from Ixodes scapularis. And the illness resembles malaria: usually fever and hemolytic anemia, the anemia that appears precisely because red blood cells are being destroyed.
In brief
Babesiosis is an infectious disease caused by Babesia, a parasitic protozoan that lives inside red blood cells.
Sporozoites invade erythrocytes, mature and replicate by binary fission; the merozoites rupture the red cell on their way out and invade others.
The parasite does not attack the red cell from outside: it moves in and breaks it open on the way out.
It spreads mainly through the bite of Ixodes scapularis ticks, and the illness resembles malaria, usually with fever and hemolytic anemia.
Sources (1)
- National Center for Biotechnology Information, StatPearls PublishingBabesiosis, StatPearlsPublished
This page explains the topic in general terms; it does not tell anyone what treatment to follow.
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