Babesiosis, Lower Hudson Valley, New York | CDC EID

EID Journal Home > Volume 17, Number 5–May 2011

Volume 17, Number 5–May 2011
Research
Babesiosis in Lower Hudson Valley, New York, USA
Julie T. Joseph, Sumith S. Roy, Navid Shams, Paul Visintainer, Robert B. Nadelman, Srilatha Hosur, John Nelson, and Gary P. Wormser

Author affiliations: New York Medical College, Valhalla, New York, USA (J.T. Joseph, S.S. Roy, N. Shams, R.B. Nadelman, S. Hosur, J. Nelson, G.P. Wormser); and Baystate Health System, Springfield, Massachusetts, USA (P. Visintainer)


Suggested citation for this article

Abstract
Although Lyme disease has been endemic to parts of the Lower Hudson Valley of New York, United States, for >2 decades, babesiosis has emerged there only since 2001. The number of Lower Hudson Valley residents in whom babesiosis was diagnosed increased 20-fold, from 6 to 119 cases per year during 2001–2008, compared with an ≈1.6-fold increase for the rest of New York. During 2002–2009, a total of 19 patients with babesiosis were hospitalized on 22 occasions at the regional tertiary care center. Concurrent conditions included advanced age, malignancies, splenectomy, and AIDS. Two patients acquired the infection from blood transfusions and 1 from perinatal exposure, rather than from a tick bite. One patient died. Clinicians should consider babesiosis in persons with fever and hemolytic anemia who have had tick exposure or have received blood products .

Babesiosis is a tick-borne infection of erythrocytes. Babesia microti, the most common cause of babesiosis in North America, is transmitted by Ixodes scapularis ticks, which also transmits Borrelia burgdorferi, the cause of Lyme disease, and Anaplasma phagocytophilum, the cause of human granulocytic anaplasmosis (HGA) (1,2). Babesiosis, however, does not occur in all Lyme disease–endemic areas (1). Although Lyme disease has been highly endemic to parts of the Lower Hudson Valley (LHV) of New York in the United States since the mid-1980s, the first indigenous case of babesiosis did not occur there until 2001 (3).

To better characterize the recent emergence of babesiosis in this region, we reviewed data for 2001–2008 on I. scapularis tick–transmitted infections in the 7 counties that make up the LHV. These counties are located immediately north of New York City. In addition, we reviewed the medical records of patients with babesiosis who were hospitalized during January 1, 2002–December 31, 2009, at the Westchester Medical Center (WMC), the sole tertiary care medical center in the LHV.

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Babesiosis, Lower Hudson Valley, New York | CDC EID


Suggested Citation for this Article
Joseph JT, Roy SS, Shams N, Visintainer P, Nadelman RB, Hosur S, et al. Babesiosis, in Lower Hudson Valley, New York, USA. Emerg Infect Dis [serial on the Internet]. 2011 May [date cited].
http://www.cdc.gov/EID/content/17/5/843.htm

DOI: 10.3201/eid1705.101334


Comments to the Authors
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Julie T. Joseph, Division of Infectious Diseases, New York Medical College, Munger Pavilion, Rm 245, Valhalla, NY 10595, USA; email: julie_joseph@nymc.edu