Archive for the ‘Babesia’ Category

A Tick Bite at Age 6, Followed by More Than 40 Years of Health Problems

https://www.lymedisease.org/edmisten-tbdwg-lyme-comments/

A tick bite at age 6, followed by more than 40 years of health problems

Marta Edmisten gave the following as public comments at the August 26 meeting of the federal Tick-Borne Disease Working Group.

Good morning, my name is Marta Edmisten. I am here today to talk about the impact tick-borne disease has had on me.

I had my first known tick bite around age 6, in 1980. I found a bump behind my right earlobe. I vividly remember my mom dropping the wriggling tick into a medicine dosing cup full of rubbing alcohol, which immediately turned red.

That was two years before Borrelia burgdorferi was officially identified and even more years before testing was available.

I am now 47 and currently live with two strains of babesiosis, two strains of Bartonella, active Lyme disease, as well as tick-borne relapsing fever.

My testing is recent and not “borderline.” This is after over five years of treatment. I am here to tell everyone that the adage that tick-borne disease is hard to get and easy to get rid of is simply not true for so many of us.

Within a year of my first tick bite, I developed endocrine issues so worrisome that I was followed by the head of endocrinology at DC’s Children’s Hospital for fourteen months. No cause was ever discovered.

Problems in school

By age 8, I suddenly developed attention and reading issues after having flawless testing results in kindergarten. I also struggled with a sudden onset of allergies and asthma. My joints would swell out of nowhere and ache. I was screened for juvenile rheumatoid arthritis. The results were negative.

By middle school I suffered from anxiety, depression, depersonalization, suicidal ideation, insomnia, memory issues, and confusion.

I was officially diagnosed with ADHD and dyslexia after getting less that 400 on the SATs. My GPA at the time was stellar. I worked really hard.

I got my second known tick bite in Rhode Island while I was in college. I had a bull’s-eye rash all over my neck. I was told it was a spider bite and sent home.

I was diagnosed with  SMI—serious mental illness—soon thereafter. For over two decades, I saw preeminent psychiatrists in Boston and New York City. I took all the pills–nothing worked. I was hospitalized multiple times. I voluntarily underwent electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) treatments.

By the time I was 36, my arms and legs often twitched uncontrollably and soon fatigue and pain made running my successful business impossible. At 40, my vision was so poor I was unable to read, walking was impossible, and I became incontinent. Multiple autoimmune diseases were suspected. I was finally tested for Lyme disease and co-infections in 2016. I started treatment soon thereafter.

I am no longer on psychiatric medications, just things to help me sleep. Physically, I am better, but I’m still extremely disabled. Just last fall, I spent months not recognizing my home or remembering that my closest friend had passed away over a year earlier.

I look perfectly normal — as long as I am seated. I live with extreme mobility issues, drenching sweats, intermittent fevers, neuropathy, immune dysfunction, pain that often makes sleep impossible, and cognitive issues that make my dream of becoming a social worker out of reach at this time. There are so many people with my story.  Please believe us.  Please help us.

Marta Edmisten lives in Maryland.

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Category:

Activism, Babesia, Bartonella, Lyme

The Added Battle For Lyme Patients: Coinfections

https://holtorfmed.com/articles/lyme-disease/the-added-battle-for-lyme-patients-co-infections?

The Added Battle for Lyme Patients: Co-infections

Holtorf Medical Group

Lyme disease is slowly gaining the recognition it deserves as a complex and serious illness that can cause severe health problems if not treated early and properly.

Learn more about Lyme disease and its symptoms here

However, it is important to note that oftentimes Lyme disease patients are not just fighting the Lyme bacteria, but also other co-infections. More specifically, part of the complication with Lyme disease is that, when bitten by a tick, people can be exposed to other pathogens that also carry illnesses. These are called co-infections. A survey of chronic Lyme-infected individuals found:

  • 50% had at least one co-infection
  • while almost 30% had at least two

So, if you have Lyme disease, there is a chance some of your symptoms may be due to a co-infection.

Below we outline two of the most common Lyme co-infections, their respective symptoms, and how to receive a proper diagnosis:

Bartonella

First reported in 1990, bartonellosis is caused by an infection of Bartonella bacteria. These harmful bacteria are capable of infecting a wide array of organisms.

Bartonella bacteria are most commonly spread by fleas, ticks, and lice. There are several different types of this bacteria. For instance, sand flies in South America carry one strain of Bartonella while human body lice, globally, carry another. Today, scientists have detected 29 different strains of this bacteria with approximately 15 that are capable of causing bartonellosis in humans.

Once Bartonella has infected the body, they primarily occupy the inside lining of blood vessels, specifically, red blood cells, macrophages, and endothelial cells. Until recently, it was believed that cases of bartonellosis tended to be mild, acute, and had little risk of contributing to further disruption. However, doctors have started finding that Bartonella may result in chronic infection.

Depending on the strain of Bartonella, symptoms may vary slightly. Bartonella henselae causes “cat scratch disease” and is associated with a bump or blister at the point of infection, swollen lymph nodes, fatigue, headaches, fever, and body aches.

Carrion’s disease (Bartonella bacilliformis) is linked to miliary lesions that ulcerate or bleed, fever, joint pain, and liver and spleen enlargement.

Bartonella quintana’s trench fever causes a fever, rash, bone pain (predominantly in the shins, neck, and back), enlarged lymph nodes, encephalitis, and eye infections.

As Bartonellosis commonly affects the skin, a streak-like rash is perhaps the most indicator of this infection. Other indicators of the condition include: tremors, neurological issues, blurred vision, numbness in the extremities, and psychiatric manifestations.

When Bartonella is attacking an immune system weakened by Lyme, it is possible to develop a more severe manifestation of bartonellosis. Bartonellosis can lead to endocarditis (heart infection) and bacillary angiomatosis (tumor-like masses caused by an infection in blood vessels).

Because bartonellosis can affect multiple bodily systems, it is often misdiagnosed or dismissed by standard practitioners. Proper diagnosis of Bartonella can be conducted through a variety of testing measures including Western Blot, IFAs (Indirect Immunofluorescent Assay), and others.

Babesia

Babesia is a parasite similar to malaria. Both fall into the category of piroplasm, which are organisms that infect red blood cells. Infection of babesia is called babesiosis and is the most common Lyme co-infection as well as the most common piroplasm infection among humans.

The first Babesia species was discovered in 1888 by Hungarian pathologist, Victor Babes. Since then, over 100 distinct strains of Babesia have been identified, but only a few are considered human pathogens. In fact, babesiosis has long been recognized as a disease of cattle and other animals but the first human case was not documented until 1957. A young Croatian farmer was infected with Babesia and died shortly after of kidney failure. By the 1960s, babesiosis cases were documented in North America, and the bacteria is recognized as a serious and potentially harmful human pathogen.

The strain of Babesia that most often affects humans is Babesia microti. Like Lyme, babesia may be transferred via tick. However, it can also be transmitted from mother to unborn child through the transfusion of contaminated blood. This quality makes babesia an exceptionally sinister threat.

Symptoms of babesiosis share several similarities with Lyme. However, it may be distinguished with an initial high fever and chills. Progression of the infection brings with it symptoms including fatigue, headache, sweating, muscle aches, chest and hip pain, and shortness of breath, or air hunger. Fortunately, symptoms of babesiosis tend to be mild and non-life-threatening. However, the mildness of the symptoms also means that the condition is often overlooked until symptoms become more severe.

Because Babesia targets red blood cells, babesiosis is often linked to a condition called hemolytic anemia. Hemolytic anemia is characterized by red blood cells dying at a faster rate than the body can produce new ones. Symptoms include: confusion, dark-colored urine, rapid heart rate, heart murmur, dizziness, fatigue, pale skin, jaundice, and swelling of the spleen and liver.

Unfortunately, when babesia goes untreated, it can lead to more severe complications, especially for immunocompromised individuals.

Because symptoms of babesiosis are largely non-specific, especially early on, it is easily missed by standard practitioners. A blood test is required to check for signs of a Babesia infection. It is also important to check if there are other conditions present with babesiosis such as Lyme disease for optimal treatment.

Final Thought

Patients treated at Holtorf Medical Group have seen an average of 7.2 different physicians prior to their visit to our center, without experiencing significant improvement.

At Holtorf Medical Group, our physicians are trained to utilize cutting-edge testing and innovative treatments to uncover the root cause of your symptoms and treat the source. If you are experiencing symptoms of Lyme disease, a co-infection, or if you have been previously diagnosed, but aren’t getting the treatment you need, call us at 877-508-1177 to see how we can help you!

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Category:

Babesia, Bartonella, Lyme

Tick-borne Diseases in the Time of COVID

https://www.recorder.com/Tick-borne-diseases-in-the-time-of-COVID-41916546

My Turn: Tick-borne diseases in the time of COVID

Mary Carey STAFF FILE PHOTO

By MARY CAREY
Published: 8/18/2021

In early July, I was hoping my husband Brian, who was feeling uncharacteristically under the weather, would bounce back to his hardy self soon, so we could rent an AirBnB on a lake or a beach for a few days.

By the end of the month, I just wanted him to get better.

We were increasingly anxious to find out what was causing his pillow-soaking sweats, violent chills, head and neck aches and extreme fatigue as one week, then a second, and half of the third week went by. Despite two visits to an urgent care clinic, a diagnosis of cellulitis and an antibiotic, he was getting worse. An emergency room doctor at Cooley Dickinson Hospital, for whom we are deeply, deeply grateful, eventually identified the culprit. But it was a confounding journey leading up to the revelation. Living in the shadow of COVID, as we all are, didn’t help.

The idea that Brian could be one of the unlucky minority of the fully vaccinated to get a breakthrough infection was always on his mind. He had had three COVID tests which all proved negative — a relief on the one hand, he said, but a little bittersweet, because if he had COVID, at least we would know what was wrong with him. (See link for article)

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**Comment**

This article is important for numerous reasons.

  1. Not everything is COVID
  2. I find it interesting that these symptoms all cropped up after he’d been “fully vaccinated” for COVID. Vaccines purposely lower the immune system so that it then mounts an immune response to whatever is injected into the body. This vaccination chain of events has reactivated latent tick-borne infections in people.  
  3. Having swollen and red toes, elevated liver enzymes, and erratic temperature fluctuations are all fairly hallmark symptoms of tick-borne illness.
  4. Cellulitis is a common misdiagnosis.
  5. The doctor thankfully recognized the symptoms and commented that they had seen a lot of tick-borne diseases – not just Lyme at the hospital this summer.
  6. Blood tests revealed the patient had Babesia, Anaplasmosis, and Lyme disease. This guy was lucky and won the jack-pot.  Patients are often seronegative due to abysmal testing and never get diagnosed.
  7. This man needs lengthy follow-up as all of these infections are notoriously persistent.

Category:

Activism, Anaplasmosis, Babesia, Lyme, vaccines

With Three Invasive Tick Species Thriving in Connecticut, State Scientist Warns of Major Public Health Hazard

https://www.courant.com/news/connecticut/hc-news-ct-more-ticks-20210816-eafwrhehkbhspacc7r5qrw4m4m-story.html

With three invasive tick species thriving in Connecticut, state scientist warns of major public health hazard

By 
HARTFORD COURANT 
AUG 16, 2021 
Stratford, Ct. - 08/13/2021 - Dr. Goudarz Molaei, with Connecticut's Agricultural Experiment Station, searches for ticks trapped on a canvas dragged through shoreline vegetation. Photograph by Mark Mirko | mmirko@courant.com
Stratford, Ct. – 08/13/2021 – Dr. Goudarz Molaei, with Connecticut’s Agricultural Experiment Station, searches for ticks trapped on a canvas dragged through shoreline vegetation. Photograph by Mark Mirko | mmirko@courant.com (Mark Mirko/The Hartford Courant)

State scientist Goudarz Molaei pulled a square of cloth through brush and grass on the Stratford coast recently, then stopped and pointed to a crawling smear of larvae on the white fabric.

The tiny arachnids were either Gulf Coast or lone star ticks, two of three invasive species, along with the Asian long-horned tick, that have recently established footholds in Connecticut.

First seen only in pockets near the coast, the blood-sucking, disease-carrying ticks have spread into other parts of the state. Compared with past years, many more worried residents and visitors have submitted ticks to the Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station, mostly deer ticks that may carry Lyme disease, Molaei said. The tally so far in 2021 is 4,700 tick submissions to the testing laboratory, compared with a total annual average of 3,000 submissions.

Milder winters and warmer temperatures overall are helping the ticks survive and thrive in Connecticut.

“This is going to be a major public health concern in the near future, if it is not already,” Molaei said.  (See link for article)

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**Comment**

Important takeaways:

  • Previously only .2% of submitted ticks were lone star ticks which increased to 4.2% this year. They transmit ehrlichiosis, STARI, spotted fever rickettsiosis, tularemia, Alpha-gal allergy, and Heartland and Bourbon Viruses.
  • The researcher states that it’s a matter of time before the entire state of Connecticut will be infested with Asian long-horned tick – the tick that can reproduce by cloning. It is supposedly less attracted to human skin but can spread diseases that make both animals and humans seriously ill.
  • The Gulf Coast tick overwintered successfully in Connecticut but currently is limited to coastal areas.  Thirty percent tested there were infected with rickettsiosis, which is similar to but less serious than Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever.
  • The deer tick, or blacklegged tick transmits Lyme disease and is active any time temperatures are above freezing.  All life stages bite humans.
  • The following percentages of ticks were sent to the Experiment Station this year:
    • 72.8% deer ticks (32% were positive for Lyme, 10% for Babesia, 4% for Anaplasmosis – and 2% tested positive for at least 2 disease agents concurrently)
    • 23.1% American dog ticks
    • the rest were lone star ticks

Category:

Alpha Gal Meat Allergy, Anaplasmosis, Babesia, Ehrlichiosis, Lyme, research, Rickettsia, Testing, Ticks, Tularemia, Viruses

Babesia Symptoms Can Be Deadly: A Family’s Story

https://danielcameronmd.com/babesia-symptoms-can-be-deadly-a-familys-story/

BABESIA SYMPTOMS CAN BE DEADLY: A FAMILY’S STORY

babesia-symptoms-deadly
The number of Babesia cases appears to be rising and as a recent article in the Washington Post reports, the tick-borne infection can be deadly when symptoms go unrecognized.
By 

Babesia symptoms can be wide-ranging and difficult to recognize by clinicians and a missed or delayed diagnosis can be deadly.

In hopes of raising awareness, one family shares their story of a Babesia diagnosis that came just a little too late.

Jeff, a 51-year-old husband and father, was hospitalized with symptoms of jaundice, agitation and inability to urinate. It took 3 days before he was diagnosed with Babesia. But his symptoms had been present for at least one month — unrecognized, as the infection progressed.

Tiny tick leads to deadly infection

As his wife tells writer Abby Schwartz from the Washington Post,¹ Jeff frequently hiked outdoors near their home in Bucks County, Pennsylvania. About a month prior to being admitted into the hospital, he had removed a tick, “no bigger than a poppy seed.”

In hindsight, “he may have had Babesia for a month,” Schwartz writes.

Diagnosis comes too late

For several weeks, Jeff reportedly had Babesia symptoms including fevers and night sweats. But clinicians presumed he had a kidney infection and prescribed a course of antibiotics. He improved briefly.

Then, he took a turn for the worst. “Jeff was weaker, sweating, unable to sleep,” his wife explains. “His breathing was labored. The whites of his eyes had yellowed, and his bilirubin was climbing, a sign that red blood cells were breaking down at an unusual rate or of liver trouble.”

READ MORE: Babesia cases among the elderly are rising, may require longer treatment

He was moved to the ICU and placed in a medically-induced coma and put on a ventilator. Doctors noted that his symptoms resembled malaria, but still did not suspect a tick-borne infection.

“His team periodically woke him, and he would squeeze his wife’s hand.”

On Tuesday, an infectious disease doctor shared some positive news. “We think we have a diagnosis.”

They suspected that Jeff had Babesiosis, a potentially deadly infection caused by parasites Babesia microti, which is typically transmitted through a tick bite.

He was prescribed an antibiotic (azithromycin) and antiparasitic (Atovaquone) medication for 7 to 10 days.

On Thursday, he died — just 2 days after starting treatment.

“If Jeff had been diagnosed early, when he first complained of night fevers, it might have been different for him,” writes Schwartz.

Since Jeff’s death, his wife and family have worked to raise awareness about Babesia.

Babesia signs and symptoms

Most people infected with Babesia do not show symptoms or have mild to moderate flu-like symptoms such as fatigue, chills, sweats, headache, body aches, nausea, and loss of appetite, which can appear days or even months later. (There is no telltale rash as with Lyme disease.)

Individuals most at-risk include the elderly and people with immunocompromised conditions. In fact, the death rate among those with an impaired immune system is as high as 20%, explains Peter Krause, a senior research scientist at Yale School of Public Health and Yale School of Medicine.

Although it is usually transmitted through a tick bite, Babesia can be acquired through a tainted blood transfusion.

Babesia cases are reported mostly in the Northeast and Upper Midwest but the disease is “increasing in frequency and geographic range,” warns Krause.

Babesia: Not recognized by all doctors

“It has to step up to the level of an infectious-disease specialist being brought in before it might get diagnosed, whereas in an area where it’s more prevalent, some of the front-line people, the emergency room doctors or urgent care doctors, might be a little more attuned to it,” says Sorana Segal-Maurer, an infectious-disease specialist at New York-Presbyterian Queens Hospital.¹

Editor’s notes:

I disagree with three statements made by doctors interviewed for the story:

  1. I have Babesia patients who do not improve with only 7 to 10 days of treatment.
  2. I have Babesia patients who are sick who do not meet the risk criteria described above.
  3. I have Babesia patients who removed the tick in less than 24 hours and still became ill.
Related Articles:

Babesia infections transmitted through blood supply

Podcast: Babesia infection after Lyme disease treatment

Podcast: Tick bite with Lyme disease, babesia and anaplasmosis

References:
  1. Babesiosis, a dangerous tick-borne infection that attacks red blood cells, appears to be a growing problem. Abby Schwartz, Washington Post, 5/29/21.

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Category:

Babesia, research, Treatment