Answer to Case 711
Answer to the Parasite Case of the Week 711: Plasmodium falciparuminfection with high parasitemia. Primarily early stage trophozoites are seen, but a single (somewhat) banana-shaped gametocyte and possibly later stage trophozoites are often seen. Given the high level of parasitemia, it ' s not surprising that we are seeing some some extracellular forms. If there happens to be concern about an alternate diagnosis of babesiosis (i.e., if the travel history wasn ' t known), then PCR could be performed. In this case, the presence of hemozoin and elongated gametocytes allows us to rule out babesiosis from the differe...
Source: Creepy Dreadful Wonderful Parasites - February 20, 2023 Category: Parasitology Source Type: blogs
November 2022: How to Kill Vampire Ticks Instantly
Yes, ticks are vampires. They need blood to progress from larva to nymph to adult and then for females to lay eggs. They can drink so much blood in one meal that they increase their weight several hundred times. Once engorged, they release their mouth attachments and fall off the host and progress to their next life stage.Ticks, depending on the species, can have up to three different hosts during a lifetime. Their complicated mouthparts—the hypostome, chelicera, and palp—allow the tick to attach and feed on animals and humans.The mouth of a tick. (Photo by the National Institutes of Health)Like most insects, ticks pro...
Source: M2E Too! Mellick's Multimedia EduBlog - October 31, 2022 Category: Emergency Medicine Tags: Blog Posts Source Type: blogs
Illness-related fatigue: More than just feeling tired
A common refrain during the COVID-19 pandemic is, “I’m so tired.” After months of adjusted living and anxiety, people are understandably weary. Parents who haven’t had a break from their kids are worn out. Those trying to juggle working from home with homeschooling are stretched thin. Between concerns about health, finances, and isolation, everyone is feeling some level of additional stress during this unusual time, and that’s tiring. We all could use a good, long nap — or better yet, a vacation.
But while a break would be nice, most people — except those who are actually sick with COVID-19 or other illnesses...
Source: Harvard Health Blog - October 21, 2020 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Jennifer Crystal, MFA Tags: Autoimmune diseases Fatigue Source Type: blogs
Be vigilant about bug spray
Ticks and mosquitoes don’t care about COVID-19 safety protocols. They don’t care that people are trying to squeeze out the last moments of this restrictive summer by getting outdoors, hiking, or just sitting on their decks at night and feeling something that’s close to normal.
COVID-19 has commanded our attention and caused people to adapt their behaviors to prevent one major health concern, but it doesn’t mean others have been eliminated. “Masks and social distancing will do nothing to protect you from what ticks and mosquitoes potentially carry,” says Dr. Todd Ellerin, director of infectious diseases and vice...
Source: Harvard Health Blog - August 7, 2020 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Steve Calechman Tags: Autoimmune diseases Prevention Safety Source Type: blogs
No spleen? What you need to know to stay healthy
Due to injury or necessary surgery (splenectomy), some people are lacking a spleen, the organ that filters the bloodstream and helps the body fight infection. You do not need your spleen to live a normal, healthy life. However, since the spleen performs some important tasks, people who do not have one are urged to take certain precautions.
What is a spleen?
The spleen is a fist-sized organ that sits under your rib cage on the left side of your abdomen. Unlike the stomach, liver, or kidneys, it is not directly connected to the other organs in your abdomen. Instead, the spleen is connected to your blood vessels, with an arte...
Source: Harvard Health Blog - April 24, 2020 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Elise Merchant, MD Tags: Health Infectious diseases Managing your health care Prevention Vaccines Source Type: blogs
Answer to Case 558
Answer toParasite Case of the Week 558:Plasmodium falciparummalaria,>10% parasitemia. NEGATIVE rapid antigen.Sowhy is the rapid antigen test negative???As noted by our readers, there are many possible reasons for apositive blood smear and negative rapid malaria antigen test (RDT). Here are our options, along with the reasons why each is or isn ' t a likely explanation in this case:This is babesiosis, and not malaria. This is a very important consideration given the morphologic similarities betweenBabesiaspp. andPlasmodium falciparum.However, the moprhologic features in this case are highly consistent withP. falcipa...
Source: Creepy Dreadful Wonderful Parasites - August 25, 2019 Category: Parasitology Source Type: blogs
Answer to Case 554
Answer to Parasite Case of the Week 554:Babesiaspecies. Without a travel history, the differential diagnosis includesPlasmodium falciparummalaria given that only ring forms are seen and there is a high parasitemia; however, the following features are supportive of babesiosis:1. Multiple (4) small forms within a single cell that are not a clear schizont form ofPlasmodium.2. Easily-identified extracellular forms.3. Lack of malaria pigmentAs Blaine mentioned, the rings are not thin and delicate as would normally be seen withP. falciparuminfection. While thicker rings are commonly seen in ' older ' blood (i.e., blood that was&...
Source: Creepy Dreadful Wonderful Parasites - July 29, 2019 Category: Parasitology Source Type: blogs
Tick-Borne Diseases of Norway
Tick-borne encephalitis (TBE) is one of eight zoonoses carried by ticks in Norway (the others are Anaplasmosis, Babesiosis, Louping ill, Lyme borreliosis, Relapsing fever, Rickettsial spotted fever and Tularemia). As displayed in the following graphs, rates of human TBE are considerably lower than those of other tick-borne diseases in Norway, and below TBE rates reported by neighboring countries. [1-3]
References:
Berger S. Infectious Diseases of Norway, 2019. 387 pages , 138 graphs , 858 references. Gideon e-books, https://www.gideononline.com/ebooks/country/infectious-diseases-of-norway/
Berger S. Ti...
Source: GIDEON blog - April 1, 2019 Category: Databases & Libraries Authors: Dr. Stephen Berger Tags: Ebooks Epidemiology Graphs ProMED Source Type: blogs
Crowdsourced Ticks Help to Create Maps of Lyme, Other Diseases
Perhaps the best way of stopping tick-borne diseases is public awareness campaigns, but these must be well targeted to achieve good results without wearing people out with unnecessary warnings. While ticks are widespread, the diseases they carry don’t travel quite as well, so knowing where tick-borne pathogens are found can be of great advantage. In addition, knowing how the diseases are distributed geographically in animal hosts can point to new ways of curtailing them.
The Bay Area Lyme Foundation recently asked people from around the United States to send them ticks that they find around where they live. The found...
Source: Medgadget - July 25, 2018 Category: Medical Devices Authors: Editors Tags: Informatics Medicine Public Health Source Type: blogs
Ticked off: America ’s quiet epidemic of tickborne diseases
For most of us, springtime marks the return of life to a dreary landscape, bringing birdsong, trees in bud, and daffodils in bloom. But if you work for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the coming of spring means the return of nasty diseases spread by ticks and mosquitoes.
The killjoys at CDC celebrated the end of winter with a bummer of a paper showing that infections spread by ticks doubled in the United States from 2004 to 2016. (Tick populations have exploded in recent decades, perhaps due to climate change and loss of biodiversity.)
Lyme disease
The most common infection spread by ticks in the US i...
Source: Harvard Health Blog - May 25, 2018 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: John Ross, MD, FIDSA Tags: Health Infectious diseases Source Type: blogs
Tick- and Mosquito-borne Diseases: Trends in the United States
The following data are abstracted from Gideon and the Gideon e-book series. [1] Charts were created using an interactive tool driven by over 30,000 base graphs in the program. [2]
Chart 1 contrasts trends for reported incidence of Lyme disease and Rocky Mountain spotted fever (RMSF). Note that while rates of Lyme disease in 2016 are 15-fold those reported in 1987, those of RMSF increased by a factor of seven. The number of fatal cases for both diseases have remained similar in recent years (i.e., the relative case-fatality rate of Lyme disease has decreased)
Chart 2 summarizes incidence data for a variety of tick-bo...
Source: GIDEON blog - May 4, 2018 Category: Databases & Libraries Authors: Dr. Stephen Berger Tags: Ebooks Epidemiology Graphs ProMED Source Type: blogs
Babesiosis
(Source: Notes from Dr. RW)
Source: Notes from Dr. RW - March 18, 2018 Category: Internal Medicine Tags: infectious disease Source Type: blogs
Babesiosis: not just in splenectomized patients
(Source: Notes from Dr. RW)
Source: Notes from Dr. RW - March 3, 2018 Category: Internal Medicine Tags: infectious disease Source Type: blogs
Babesiosis review
(Source: Notes from Dr. RW)
Source: Notes from Dr. RW - February 22, 2018 Category: Internal Medicine Tags: hematology infectious disease Source Type: blogs
Ticks and the changing landscape of tick-borne illnesses
Ticks and the diseases they carry have long been recognized as health concerns, especially in the warmer months when ticks (and humans) are more active. Ticks wait on grass tips or shrubs to latch onto new hosts when they brush by. Most of the hosts are animals, but a few tick species do bite and feed on humans. While doing so, they can transmit bacteria and viruses through their saliva.
But here’s what’s changing:
Tick species are being found in a wider geographic range.
The number of case reports of tick-borne illnesses is increasing.
Scientists continue to identify new pathogens (bacteria and viruses that cause dis...
Source: Harvard Health Blog - August 11, 2017 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Wynne Armand, MD Tags: Health Infectious diseases Prevention Safety Travel health Source Type: blogs
