Archive for the ‘Babesia’ Category

The Gift That Keeps Giving: Wisconsin Organ Donor Gives Babesiosis to Two Recipients

http://wwwnc.cdc.gov/eid/article/22/11/15-1028_article

Abstract
Babesia microti, an intraerythrocytic parasite, is tickborne in nature. In contrast to transmission by blood transfusion, which has been well documented, transmission associated with solid organ transplantation has not been reported. We describe parasitologically confirmed cases of babesiosis diagnosed ~8 weeks posttrasnplantation in 2 recipients of renal allografts from an organ donor who was multiply transfused on the day he died from traumatic injuries. The organ donor and recipients had no identified risk factors for tick borne infection. Antibodies against B. microti parasites were not detected by serologic testing of archived pre transplant specimens; however, 1 of the donor’s blood donors was seropositive when tested post donation and had risk factors for tick exposure. The organ donor probably served as a conduit of Babesia parasites from the seropositive blood donor to both kidney recipients. Babesiosis should be included in the differential diagnosis of unexplained fever and hemolytic anemia after blood transfusion or organ transplantation.

There’s a number of interesting points about this abstract.

Firstly, they state transmission from organ transplantation has not been reported. Not reported does not mean it doesn’t happen. As in the case of the refusal to treat two children in Arkansas due to the fact there hadn’t been any reported cases of Lyme Disease, even though they have ticks infected with LD,
https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2016/09/24/arkansas-kids-denied-lyme-treatment/, at least now infection of Babesiosis by transplantation has been “officially” reported on so the next poor sucker that gets it doesn’t have to be left to suffer.

Secondly, it states that the donor and recipients had no identified risk factors for tick borne infection. If you live in Wisconsin – that’s your risk factor right there. Period. You can walk outside, sniff the air and get infected. Entomologists are finding ticks in short grass here – like in soccer fields.

Thirdly, it states that Babesiosis should be included in the differential diagnosis of unexplained fever and hemolytic anemia after blood transfusion or organ transplantation. Again, I’m glad this is “official” now but there are some nuances about Babesia regular doctors need to learn from Lyme Literate Doctors (LLMD’s) who are in the trenches with extremely ill folks.

https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2016/01/16/babesia-treatment/
It’s important to know that folks who are given immunosuppressant drugs if they have Babesia could get much worse, and since Babesia itself suppresses the immune system, the two together are a one, two punch.  Folks receiving organ transplants all receive immunosuppressant drugs.  The challenge is that donors might have subclinical Babesia and not know it.  They have zero to mild symptoms they could easily brush off as menopause (who doesn’t have night sweats?) or age (who doesn’t have some fatigue?).  Also, testing for Babesia takes a trained eye and there may not be enough organisms present in the blood sample to identify. According to Dr. Horowitz, a knowledgable LLMD, doctors are taught that besides day and night sweats and chills, patients are supposed to get hemolytic anemia and their liver functions go up or their platelet count might go down (thrombocytopenia), but that only certain strains of Babesia do this. Also, they are taught that 10 days of an antimalarial will cure babesiosis when in fact it is one of the most dangerous and tenacious co-infections he deals with. Many LLMD’s recommend treating it for minimum of 4 months to a year, much longer than what standard doctors recommend, and what was used in the above abstract.

And to top it all off, various species produce offspring that have different exterior proteins or genotypes to evade the immune system, making it even harder to identify.

And fourthly, the article states that because the cases of babesiosis in the recipients could have been easily missed, it highlights the possibility that other transplantation-associated cases have occurred but were not diagnosed or investigated, and that at least one patient’s Babesiosis was diagnosed because of the serendipitous finding of parasites on a blood smear that was examined manually because of platelet clumping. Ok – so they found it by luck. That’s a bit frightening.

How many were missed because they weren’t so lucky?

https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2011/09/25/the-babesia-checklist-copyrighted-2011-james-schaller-md-mar-version-20/

On the bright side, I truly am glad this is all official now.

Category:

Babesia

Hope for Southerners

Up until now, the powers that be have pretty much denied the existence of Lyme Disease in the South. A great example of this happened recently when children from Arkansas were denied treatment because the Director of the Infectious Disease Program stated that although they have ticks that transmit LD, there aren’t any recorded cases.  https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2016/09/24/arkansas-kids-denied-lyme-treatment/

This illogical ideology is about to change thanks to the work of Kerry Clark, PhD, MPH, Professor of Epidemiology & Environmental Health at the University of North Florida. At the recent Lyme Disease Association (LDA) 17th Annual Conference in St. Paul, MN, Clark presented his work showing that Borrelia burgdorferi sensu lato (Bbsl) DNA has been detected in scores of human patients and dogs from the South, who had no travel history to Lyme endemic regions. Bbsl was isolated in culture from patients from both Florida and Georgia – never before described in scientific literature.

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/292984009_A_divergent_strain_isolated_from_a_resident_of_the_southeastern_United_States_was_identified_by_MLST_analysis_as_Borrelia_bissettii

The take home: Clark is finding strains in the South that the current CDC two-tier testing will never pick up in a thousand years.

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/285584725_Isolation_of_live_Borrelia_burgdorferi_sensu_lato_spirochetes_from_patients_with_undefined_disorders_and_symptoms_not_typical_for_Lyme_diseases

The take home: Clark found live Bbsl (bissettii-like strain) in people from the Southeast who had undefined disorders not typical of LD, and were treated for LD even though they were seronegative, proving that B. bissetti is responsible for worldwide human infection.

He also showed DNA of Bbsl in Lone Star ticks which might be a bridge vector of transmission to humans.

To see Dr. Clark’s work, go to: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Kerry_Clark/publications

Dr. Clark was the first to report finding LD spirochetes in animals and ticks in South Carolina, as well as in wild lizards in South Carolina and Florida. He has documented the presence of LD Borrelia species, Babesia microti, Anaplasma phagocytophilum, Rickettsia species, and other tick-borne pathogens in wild animals, ticks, dogs, and humans in Florida and other southern states.

Category:

Babesia, Lyme, research, Ticks

A Child’s Lyme Story

It is not normal for a child to complain of leg pain – particularly in their joints.  For Patrik, the doctors told him he had growing pains.

End of story.

But it didn’t end for Patrik, and it doesn’t end for many children because it isn’t growing pains, it can often be a systemic infection that needs to be dealt with.  Patrik’s issues became more cognitive in nature where he had trouble with memory, paying attention, fatigue, and uncontrollable blinking.  This all intensified and he developed anxiety, stuttering, mood swings – and rage.

Patrik finally tested positively for Lyme and found a compassionate doctor who understood him and treated him for autoimmune brain dysfunction triggered by LD.

Please learn from this story, share it with others, and don’t settle for pat answers.  Doctors should not dismiss a child when they have severe pain and/or cognitive issues.

Good news – Patrik is doing better on treatment and has regained much of his cognitive ability.  In my experience children respond very well to proper MSIDS treatment which treats all forms of borrelia, and typically the various coinfections that tend to come along for the ride.

For various treatments to discuss with your practitioner see:

https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2016/02/13/lyme-disease-treatment/

https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2016/01/16/babesia-treatment/

https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2016/01/03/bartonella-treatment/

https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2016/02/07/mycoplasma-treatment/

https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2016/03/28/combating-viruses/

 

 

 

Category:

Babesia, Bartonella, Lyme, Mycoplasma, Treatment, Viruses

Babesia Cure?

http://news.yale.edu/2016/06/06/combination-therapy-cures-tick-borne-illness-mice

Yale researchers have found that combining atovaquone and ELQ-334, at low doses, cleared Babesia in mice and prevented recurrence up to 122 days.

ELQ stands for Endochin like quinolone and is a preclinical candidate that targets the liver and blood stages of malarial organisms.

http://malariajournal.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/1475-2875-13-339  It’s been known since 1948 that Endochin has anti-malarial properties; however, it has proven to be ineffective in vivo against human malaria.  Recent advances have suggested revisiting previously abandoned lead molecules to be possible viable anti-malarial drug candidates.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23019377  ELQ-271 and ELQ-316 are effective against acute and latent toxoplasmosis.

When I asked my pharmacist about the ELQ’s, he said he couldn’t find anything about the manufacturing process, and that as far as side effects, there won’t be a much information available until ELQ-334 proceeds further in the approval process. Sometimes side effects don’t show up until well after drugs have been on the market.  He also stated that there were only 800 cases of neuropathy from 1998-2013 reported to the FDA for quinolines.  

While I could be wrong, Endochin like quinolone could possibly mean it is made with fluoride.

http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2009/07/18/antibiotics-to-avoid–the-plague-due-to-fdas-oversight-failure.aspx  Quinolones are made with fluoride, which enables them to penetrate into tissue, including your brain.  This ability is what makes them valuable against tick borne infections.

Omniflox, Raxar, Trovan, Zagam, and Tequin have all been banned due to their side effects; however, Cipro, Levaquin, Avelox, and Floxin continue to be prescribed.

In Dr. Cohen’s 2001 study, the following side effects were documented:

*Nervous system symptoms occurred in 91 percent of patients (pain, tingling and numbness, dizziness, malaise, weakness, headaches, anxiety and panic, loss of memory, psychosis)
*Musculoskeletal symptoms in 73 percent of patients (tendon ruptures, tendonitis, weakness, joint swelling)
*Sensory symptoms in 42 percent of patients (tinnitus, altered visual, olfactory, and auditory function)
*Cardiovascular symptoms in 36 percent of patients (tachycardia, shortness of breath, chest pain, palpitations)
*Skin reactions in 29 percent of patients (rashes, hair loss, sweating, intolerance to heat or cold)
*Gastrointestinal symptoms in 18 percent of patients (nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, abdominal pain)
A comprehensive list of reactions can be found at Dr. Cohen’s site Medication Sense.

According to Dr. Mercola, quinolones are too often prescribed for minor problems such as sinus, bladder, and prostate infections. He feels these super-antibiotics should be used as a last line of defense.

 

Be armed with facts to make an informed decision about these antibiotics with your LLMD (Lyme literate doctor).  One of the most experienced LLMD’s in Wisconsin states that he has used quinolones for over 20 years without tendon rupture.  It’s important to notify your doctor immediately if you notice symptoms such as tendon pain or anything else that doesn’t seem right.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Category:

Babesia, Malaria, research, Toxoplasmosis, Treatment, Uncategorized

Study Showing Results Testing Babesia Microti

Babesiosis in the blood supply is a big problem.  This study was to determine the effectiveness of Enzyme Immunoassay (EIA).  The study, in Transfusion, showed that (EIA) for B. microti had a specificity in a non endemic population of 99.93%.  It had a sensitivity of 91.1% among clinical babesiosis patients who are IFA-positive, and is said to work well and is cost effective.

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/trf.13618/abstract  Levin, A. E., Williamson, P. C., Bloch, E. M., Clifford, J., Cyrus, S., Shaz, B. H., Kessler, D., Gorlin, J., Erwin, J. L., Krueger, N. X., Williams, G. V., Penezina, O., Telford, S. R., Branda, J. A., Krause, P. J., Wormser, G. P., Schotthoefer, A. M., Fritsche, T. R. and Busch, M. P. (2016), Serologic screening of United States blood donors for Babesia microti using an investigational enzyme immunoassay. Transfusion. doi: 10.1111/trf.13618
This project was supported by the National Heart Lung and Blood Institute at the National Institutes of Health through SBIR Phase I and Phase II Contract HHSN268201000047C, and by Blood Systems Research Institute Contract 10734.

BACKGROUND
The tick-borne pathogen Babesia microti has become recognized as the leading infectious risk associated with blood transfusion in the United States, yet no Food and Drug Administration–licensed screening tests are currently available to mitigate this risk. The aim of this study was to evaluate the performance of an investigational enzyme immunoassay (EIA) for B. microti as a screening test applied to endemic and nonendemic blood donor populations.
STUDY DESIGN AND METHODS
The study aimed to test 20,000 blood donors from areas of the United States considered endemic for B. microti and 10,000 donors from a nonendemic area with the investigational B. microti EIA. Repeat-reactive samples were retested by polymerase chain reaction (PCR), blood smear, immunofluorescent assay (IFA), and immunoblot assay. In parallel, serum samples from symptomatic patients with confirmed babesiosis were tested by EIA, IFA, and immunoblot assays.
RESULTS
A total of 38 of 13,757 (0.28%) of the donors from New York, 7 of 4583 (0.15%) from Minnesota, and 11 of 8363 (0.13%) from New Mexico were found repeat reactive by EIA. Nine of the 56 EIA repeat-reactive donors (eight from New York and one from Minnesota) were positive by PCR. The specificity of the assay in a nonendemic population was 99.93%. Among IFA-positive clinical babesiosis patients, the sensitivity of the assay was 91.1%.
CONCLUSION
The B. microti EIA detected PCR-positive, potentially infectious blood donors in an endemic population and exhibited high specificity among uninfected and unexposed individuals. The EIA promises to provide an effective tool for blood donor screening for B. microti in a format amenable to high-throughput and cost-effective screening.

Category:

Babesia, Uncategorized