According to a USA Today article, doctors are worried because “the risk of transfusion-associated babesia infection may be increasing. Cases are occurring year-round and have been seen in states where ticks that carry babesia are not endemic.”
The study says that at least 122 people have been infected since 2000.
The CDC notes that babesiosis is most common in the Northeast and upper Midwest and usually peaks in the warmer months, although cases were found in the blood supply year round. “Although many people who are infected with Babesia do not have symptoms, for those who do, effective treatment is available. Babesiosis is preventable, if simple steps are taken to reduce exposure to ticks,” it says.
No test can screen for the disease before it gets into the blood supply, so blood banks have to ask those who are waiting to donate if they’ve had flu-like illnesses and tick bites. Screening tests are being developed, according to Barbara Herwaldt, lead author of the study and a parasite expert.
USA Today reported that since 1979, when the first case associated with a blood transfusion was confirmed, 159 cases have been reported. More than three-fourths of them have occurred since 2000. most cases were associated with red blood cell components; four were linked to platelets.
Doctors are now required to report cases of the tick-borne illness to local health departments. So far this year, 314 cases have been reported nationally.
It’s still not as common as Lyme disease, another tick-borne illness, Herwaldt said.
United Press International noted that cases of babesia from the blood supply are very rare and that those most likely to experience severe complications are people who are immune-compromised, elderly or without a spleen.
CDC says most of the cases were in one of the seven states where babesia-infected ticks are most common: Connecticut, Massachusetts, Minnesota, new Jersey, new York, Rhode Island and Wisconsin.
Experts note that people are far more likely to get the condition from ticks than from blood.
The study’s limitation, according to the Annal’s abstract, was that the “extent to which cases were not diagnosed, investigated, reported, or ascertained is unknown.”
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