Transactions of the Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene
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Trans. R. Soc. Trop. Med. Hyg. · Jan 1989
ReviewThe impact of cultural and environmental changes on the epidemiology and control of human babesiosis.
The infection of humans with Babesia spp. has provided a well studied example of how cultural and environmental factors have contributed to the spread of an infection. Individuals developing babesiosis have been those engaging in life styles which put them at risk of tick bites. ⋯ The forms of human babesiosis which occur in the north-eastern United States are directly related to the spread of deer and the deer tick, which is the vector of the Babesia responsible for human infection. The spread of deer in the region was a direct result of cultural changes resulting in altered human behaviour which permitted deer to exist close to human settlement areas.