Researchers from New Jersey, the University of Connecticut and Harvard School of Public Health report on the what may be the first three confirmed cases of the disease acquired in the state of New Jersey. Their report appears in the June 1999 issue of the Journal of Clinical Microbiology . Human babesiosis is a severe, sometimes fatal disease caused by a red blood cell parasite. It was first described in the late 1960s on Nantucket Island. The disease can cause fever, fatigue and hemolytic anemia lasting from several days to several months.
Infections can also occur without producing symptoms.
It can be treated, but the symptoms are similar to Lyme disease and treatment requires different medication. Physicians must therefore be aware to test for the disease in order to treat it. Although Lyme disease is a frequent health hazard near our patients' homes in central New Jersey, no episode of human babesial infection has previously been reported from this region. Physicians practicing in central New Jersey, therefore, should be aware that B. microti infection may threaten the health of their patients. Southern extension of the range of human babesiosis in the eastern United States.