A Malaria Drug, Tafenoquine, May Combat Tick-Borne Babesiosis
By Dennis Thompson HealthDay Reporter
WEDNESDAY, June 5, 2024 -- A malaria drug could help immune-compromised people who can’t shake off babesiosis, a tick-borne parasitic infection, a new study says.
The drug tafenoquine helped cure four New England patients whose babesiosis infections weren’t knocked out by the usual standard of care, researchers reported recently in the journal Clinical Infectious Diseases.
“Tafenoquine is going to make a huge difference, I think, in people who are severely immunocompromised,” said study first author Dr. Peter Krause, a senior research scientist in the Yale School of Public Health Department of Epidemiology of Microbial Diseases.
Babesiosis is one of the most common tick-borne diseases in the world. In the United States, it’s found in the Northeast and upper Midwest.
It’s caused by parasitic microorganisms, and was first reported in humans in 1957, researchers said in background notes.
As with malaria, the parasite invades red blood cells, which gave researchers the idea of trying tafenoquine against it. The infection typically causes fever, sweats, chills, headache, fatigue, weakness, and joint and muscle pain.
Babesiosis is typically treated using a straightforward two-drug combination of the antibiotics atovaquone and azithromycin, researchers said.
This combo “works in virtually every patient with mild disease,” said study co-author Edouard Vannier, an assistant professor in the Tufts Medical Center’s Division of Geographic Medicine and Infectious Diseases in Boston.
However, the babesiosis parasite has been developing resistance against this therapy, researchers said.
“In patients who are severely ill and severely immunocompromised, because resolution does not happen fast enough, the parasite has a chance to mutate,” Vannier explained in a Yale news release. “Very often, atovaquone resistance is noted.”
Faced with such resistance, patients can suffer a relapse into severe babesiosis. Among those who relapse, as many as one-fifth die, researchers said.
The patients in this new study had immune deficiencies, and they suffered dangerous relapses after the two-drug therapy didn’t knock out the parasite.
Four out of five patients were cured after receiving tafenoquine, researchers report.
In the successful cases, tafenoquine was administered along with other antibiotics or malaria treatments like atovaquone, proguanil, azithromycin and clindamycin.
The fifth patient received tafenoquine on its own, and that failed to clear the infection.
Still, researchers found that tafenoquine overcame the resistance of the babesiosis parasite.
In the future, doctors might wind up testing a babesiosis patient to see which specific resistances their parasites have developed, and then choosing appropriate drugs to counter them, Vannier said.
“Testing for mutations is the future of treating these patients and opens the door to personalized medicine,” Vannier said. “The whole idea is to tailor the therapy to the patient.”
Sources
- Yale School of Public Health, news release, May 31, 2024
Disclaimer: Statistical data in medical articles provide general trends and do not pertain to individuals. Individual factors can vary greatly. Always seek personalized medical advice for individual healthcare decisions.
![](/img/logo/vendor/healthday-logo.png)
© 2024 HealthDay. All rights reserved.
Posted June 2024
Read this next
CDC Warns of Rising Threat of Dengue This Summer
WEDNESDAY, June 26, 2024 -- A federal health advisory warning of a heightened risk of dengue fever infections in the United States was issued on Tuesday. The alert was prompted...
This Travel Season, Know Your Risks for Yellow Fever
SATURDAY, June 8, 2024 -- If tropical lands like South America or Africa are your travel destinations, getting yourself protected against yellow fever before you go is imperative...
Dogs Can Get Lyme Disease, Too
MONDAY, April 29, 2024 -- People worry about contracting Lyme disease from ticks, but they should be concerned for their furry friends as well, veterinarians say. Dogs throughout...
More news resources
- FDA Medwatch Drug Alerts
- Daily MedNews
- News for Health Professionals
- New Drug Approvals
- New Drug Applications
- Drug Shortages
- Clinical Trial Results
- Generic Drug Approvals
Subscribe to our newsletter
Whatever your topic of interest, subscribe to our newsletters to get the best of Drugs.com in your inbox.