Author/Editor		Rojko, Tereza
Title		Okužbe z babezijami pri ljudeh z ohranjeno imunostjo v Sloveniji
Type		monografija
Place		Ljubljana
Publisher		Medicinska fakulteta
Publication year		2007
Volume		str. 76
Language		slo
Abstract		Babesiosis is a tick transmitted febrile illness caused by the intra-erythrocyte parasites of the protozoan Babesia. It is a long time recognised disease of wild and domestic animals. Since 1957, when the first definitive case of human babesiosis was documented, there were increasing reports of the human disease, mostly from the USA. Slovenia is an endemic region for tick-borne encephalitis, Lyme borreliosis, and human granulocytic anaplasmosis, which are all transmitted by Ixodes ricinus. Recently, the presence of Babesia microti, Babesia divergens and a newly described human pathogen babesia BUl has been established in tick vector 1. ricinus and/or in the vertebrate reservoir in Slovenia. These new findings were the stimulus for the present study in which we wanted to confirm our hypothesis that babesiosis is a possible reason for the febrile illness after the tick bite in immunocompetent patients in Slovenia. We also wanted to determine the prevalence of B. divergens IgG in a group of asymptomatic participants frequently exposed to ticks, as well as the incidence of B. divergens symptomatic and asymptomatic infections during the period of tick activity in the same group. The prospective study was composed of two parts. In the first part we included 215 immunocompetent participants; 122 forestry workers and 93 indoor workers. All the study participants were examined twice in 2002; in early spring (March) before the beginning of tick activity and in late autumn (November) at the end of tick activity. At each examination, data were collected using a questionnaire, and a blood sample was taken for serological analysis. The presence of B. divergens IgG in the paired serum samples was determined by an immunofluorescent assay. (Abstract truncated at 2000 characters)
Descriptors		BABESIOSIS BABESIA ANTIBODIES, BACTERIAL IGM IGG TICK INFESTATIONS POLYMERASE CHAIN REACTION