Babesia sp. KO

Yabsley, Michael J. & Shock, Barbara C., 2013, Natural history of Zoonotic Babesia: Role of wildlife reservoirs, International Journal for Parasitology: Parasites and Wildlife 2, pp. 18-31 : 25

2.2.5. Babesia sp. KO 1

The first human case of babesiosis in Korea was diagnosed in a splenectomized patient from Jeon-nam Province ( Fig. 2 ) ( Kim et al., 2007). She was successfully treated with clindamycin after treatment with quinine, for her initial diagnosis of malaria, failed. Parasites observed in her blood were classified as a larger Babesia and molecular characterization indicated it was related to Babesia sp. from sheep in China. A subsequent PCR-based survey of 68 residents from the patient’s village detected three asymptomatic cases ( Kim et al., 2007). All goats tested from the village were negative and no reservoir is currently known. No vector has been identified for B. sp. KO1 but Haemaphysalis longicornis and Haemaphysalis quinghaiensis are vectors of two related Babesia spp. from China ( Bai et al., 2002; Guan et al., 2010).

Figures

Fig. 2. Babesia parasites in human erythrocytes. (a) B. divergens, (b) B. venatorum, (c) Babesia sp. MO1 from Kentucky, (d) B. microti, (e) B. duncani, (f) Babesia sp. KO1 from Korea. (1) Paired piriforms; (2) Tetrads; (3) Ring forms. The figure was reprinted with permission from Elsevier first published in Gray et al. (2010). The parasites shown in Fig. 2a, b, c, e, and f were assembled from original photographs, first published as follows: (a) Hunfeld et al., 2008; (b) Häselbarth et al., 2007; (c) Beattie et al., 2002; (e) Kjemtrup et al., 2002; (f) Kim et al., 2007.