There are diseases that are transmitted by pets. In order to quickly recognize the ailment and choose the right treatment, you need to know exactly what the pathology looks like and what symptoms it provokes. Pyroplasmosis in humans is one of the diseases transmitted from dogs. The disease is not too scary, but still very unpleasant and requiring the right approach to therapy.
Pyroplasmosis: what is this ailment?
Pyroplasmosis, or, as it is often called, babesiosis, is a transmissible infectious zoonotic pathology. Its peak occurs in spring or autumn, at the moment when ticks are activated. Most often, this disease infects mammals, especially cattle, dogs and rodents. The disease in dogs is caused by simple blood parasites belonging to the genus Babesia, and their direct carriers are ixodid ticks.
Pyroplasmosis in humans is very rare, according to statistics, no more than a hundred people around the world, however, some cases result in the death of the patient. Most often, the pathology affects people with an immunodeficiency state - AIDS, HIV - or those who have had surgery on the spleen. In those cases, if a patient with normal immunity becomes infected with an ailment, the pathology is asymptomatic. Is pyroplasmosis dangerous for humans? We will deal with this issue in detail.
Causative agent of the disease
The causative agent of this type of disease is the simplest of the genus Babesia. This species is specific. Two species are contagious to humans, but one to animals. Several stages of development go through the life cycle of babesia. The final owner becomes a large mammal. In the vertebral hosts, they are located directly in the red blood cells - red blood cells. It is there that they increase in quantity quite quickly, while the reproduction rate is large, and everything happens by budding or division.
Their intermediate owner is an ixodid tick. Together with blood, protozoa enter the digestive tract of the animal. In the process of constant division of babesia form a generation capable of sexual reproduction. From the intestine through the hemolymph of the insect, the pathogen spreads to all organs of its intermediate host and affects the salivary glands.
The transmission path is transmissible. During a tick bite with saliva, parasites enter directly into the mammalian circulatory system, causing disease.
The life cycle of the simplest takes place in red blood cells. Inhabited in the circulatory system, babesias destroy blood cells, while causing this kind of symptoms: intoxication, anemia and hemoglobinuria. But before answering the main question - is pyroplasmosis contagious to humans? - you need to find out what happens inside the body when the ailment begins its development.
What happens in the body after ingestion?
During a tick bite, infection along with saliva is transmitted to humans or animals. After entering the body, the parasite penetrates the circulatory system and multiplies directly in red blood cells. The waste products of the simplest have a toxic effect on the body.
Pyroplasmosis in humans causes the destruction of red blood cells, which ultimately manifests itself in the form of anemia. A reduced hemoglobin level leads to a violation of the microcirculation of blood in each organ. As a result, due to the fact that red blood cells are destroyed, their membranes settle in the tubules of the kidneys and lead to blockage. As a result, kidney failure develops, and dead red blood cells - hematuria - appear in the urine.
Signs of the disease
Pyroplasmosis in humans in a latent form, from the moment of infection to the first clinical manifestations, can occur from 7 to 21 days. In rare cases, it can last much longer. The first symptoms appear in the form of fever, body temperature rises sharply to 40 degrees. Shoot down with antipyretics it will be difficult. Other signs may also appear:
- pain in the muscles and joints;
- headache;
- breathing quickens;
- dull pain in the region of the heart appears.
The usual state with this pathology is inhibition. Apathy develops, a depressed state, appetite is disturbed, because of which weight is quickly lost. Pyroplasmosis in a person also causes dyspeptic symptoms:
- diarrhea or constipation;
- disorders of the digestive tract (nausea and vomiting).
In a short time, symptoms of multiple organ failure appear. The work of the heart and blood vessels, kidneys, and liver is disrupted. But still, how to recognize the disease in people with severe immunodeficiency and those who do not have a history of chronic pathologies?
Symptoms of piroplasmosis
Before answering the question, is pyroplasmosis dangerous to humans or not, you need to know exactly how quickly you can detect by symptoms that the disease is already in the body.
A pronounced clinic of the disease is observed in people with a reduced immune system, these include:
- AIDS infected
- suffering from serious chronic pathologies (leukemia, systemic pathologies);
- taking immunosuppressants.
In healthy people, symptoms may not occur. Their level of affected red blood cells remains within 1-2%. In this case, immunity can independently cope with a parasitic ailment. If the level of red blood cells increases to 5%, then you may see:
- febrile fever;
- drowsiness and a feeling of fatigue, even if a person did nothing;
- chills;
- aching muscles and joints;
- general neurological symptoms.
At this time, antiviral drugs can no longer help, and antipyretics have an effect only for a short time.
To answer the question: "Is dog pyroplasmosis dangerous?" - a person needs to be examined and prescribed the right treatment.
Diagnostic measures
An accurate diagnosis can be made after laboratory tests. For a person, they are almost not done due to the fact that the disease happens very rarely. Anamnesis and endotoxemia syndrome are indications for a more comprehensive examination for babesiosis.
The fastest and most inexpensive diagnostic method is staining of blood smears according to Romanovsky-Giemsa and further microscopy. Reproduction in the material is very similar to the causative agent of malaria. Additionally, differential diagnosis is carried out. Microorganisms can be detected only if their number is large. In chronic form or at the initial stage, this technique is not effective.
Quick results can be obtained if serological diagnostics are carried out or the polymerase chain reaction method is used.
Polymerase chain reaction (abbreviated PCR) makes it possible to find and decode protozoa DNA in the blood. This technique is considered one of the most accurate and informative. It also has a disadvantage - it is a high cost, but if you want to get accurate data and recover faster, then you should not pay attention to this minus.
After the diagnosis is made, you can proceed to the selection of drugs. But I want to say that pyroplasmosis is transmitted to a person through ticks, so it is important to detect it and undergo an examination in time.
Treatment methods
Pyroplasmosis is a not yet fully understood ailment. Therefore, therapy is mainly selected individually for each patient, depending on the symptoms and the clinic. It is for this reason that you need to seek qualified help as soon as undesirable manifestations appear. The mild form often goes away by itself; treatment can be symptomatic, including the use of antipyretic and general strengthening agents. After such treatment, the consequences completely disappear, the immune system destroys the pathogen, or everything can be completely disastrous, the disease will become chronic, and the patient will become a carrier of the parasite. A severe form of the disease is treated with a combined regimen, which includes:
- Clindamycin;
- "Quinine";
- "Azithromycin";
- “Atovakan”;
- "Pentamidine Diisocyanate";
- "Cotrimoxazole."
It is very difficult to treat the pathology, because all drugs have a number of contraindications and undesirable manifestations, therefore, the attending doctor should choose the tactics of treatment.
Answer the question of interest to many people: "Pyroplasmosis is transmitted from dog to person?" - it is possible so. Most often, the causative agent is a tick, which, when bitten, infects the patient, but the dog is the carrier. But if you observe hygiene, the disease is not terrible.
Preventive measures
You can not get vaccinated and protect yourself from infection, since there is no such vaccine. But the main thing is that you can protect yourself from the disease, if you don’t go to tick habitats, and if necessary, choose the right clothes, use aerosols that repel insects, examine clothes and body after each trip to the forest.
Doctors reviews
Not all specialists came across patients who would be infected with such a serious ailment, because in all about 100 cases of the disease were recorded in the world.
The treatment is quite complicated, often patients die in the first days after visiting the hospital, so the most important thing, according to doctors, is prevention and protection against ticks. Only in this case, you can be sure that the infection does not settle in the body and does not lead to serious and irreversible consequences.
Conclusion
Whether piroplasmosis is transmitted to humans is an important issue. Yes, transmitted through a tick bite. And if suddenly a tick was found on the body, it is urgent to exclude infection, otherwise the consequences can be disastrous. You can determine the presence of the disease using special diagnostic methods, and you can be cured if you immediately start taking a complex of drugs that will help not only to alleviate the symptoms, but also to kill the pathogen.