Table 2.

Diagnosis of babesiosis.

Epidemiology
– Residence in or travel to an area endemic for babesiosis
– Ixodes tick bite
– History of recent blood transfusion from a donor living or traveling in a Babesia endemic area
Symptoms
– Fever, fatigue, chills, sweats, headache, myalgia, anorexia, cough, arthralgia, nausea
– Less common: emotional lability and depression, hyperesthesia, sore throat, abdominal pain, conjunctival injection, photophobia, weight loss
Signs on physical examination
– Fever
– Splenomegaly, hepatomegaly, pallor
Common laboratory diagnostic procedures
– Identification of Babesia on Giemsa stained peripheral blood smears
– Amplification of Babesia DNA in blood using polymerase chain reaction
– Four-fold rise in Babesia antibody in acute or convalescent sera or identification of serum Babesia IgM antibody