Is Babesia blocking your recovery from Lyme disease?
By Dorothy Kupcha Leland
Sept. 15, 2025
Lyme disease is increasingly being recognized as a complex chronic illness, often tangled up with co-infections and overlapping conditions that make it difficult to pinpoint what’s really going on.
One of the trickiest players in this mix is Babesia. Even though it can come from the same tick bite as Lyme, it’s a separate infection, and it needs its own testing and treatment. Left unaddressed, Babesia can derail recovery, leaving patients with persistent symptoms and few answers.
Dr. Alexis Chesney, a naturopathic physician and Lyme specialist, has just published an article in NDNR (Naturopathic Doctor News & Review) titled “The Diagnosis and Treatment of Babesiosis: A Naturopathic Approach to an Emerging Tick-Borne Disease.”
As she explains, Babesia is a malaria-like parasite that infects red blood cells. It can cause symptoms ranging from crushing fatigue and night sweats to shortness of breath and heart palpitations. And although it often accompanies Lyme disease, it doesn’t respond to the same treatment. That means that if Babesia isn’t identified and treated properly, you are missing an essential step in your quest to get better.
Dr. Chesney’s article offers:
A clear explanation of how babesiosis is diagnosed, including which tests are most reliable.
A look at naturopathic treatment options, including herbs, supplements, and detox strategies.
A balanced approach that integrates conventional and natural medicine.
You can read the full article here. And if you’re navigating tick-borne illness, consider sharing it with your provider. It might just change the course of your treatment.
TOUCHED BY LYME is written by Dorothy Kupcha Leland, President of LymeDisease.org. She is co-author of Finding Resilience: A Teen’s Journey Through Lyme Disease and of When Your Child Has Lyme Disease: A Parent’s Survival Guide. Contact her at dleland@lymedisease.org.
Hear Jennifer Crystal share her inspiring journey of resilience and recovery from chronic Lyme disease in conversation with Dr. Richard Horowitz. Jennifer Crystal opens up about her long journey with Lyme disease, from years of being misdiagnosed and dismissed to finally finding the right treatment. She shares the challenges of living with chronic illness, the role of resilience and support, and the lessons she hopes will inspire others facing similar struggles.
Jennifer Crystal is the author of One Tick Stopped the Clock, a powerful memoir chronicling her journey with Lyme disease. After years of misdiagnoses, she found answers and healing through proper treatment and resilience. Today, Jennifer advocates for greater awareness of tick-borne illnesses, sharing her story to inspire patients and educate caregivers and physicians alike. She has also worked with the Harvard Lyme Wellness Initiative.
Ivermectin is perhaps the single best treatment not just for PSYOP-19, but for the spike protein damage that is induced by the slow kill bioweapon injections. Read full story
…but now, under MAHA leadership, it appears that the FDA is finally backing down on its war against Ivermectin, with journalist Maria Bartiromo stating matter of factly:
The FDA is now saying that it’s okay to take ivermectin if you have COVID.
The following clip is currently trending on X:
🚨 BREAKING: FDA Finally Admits Ivermectin Works — After Years of Calling It ‘Horse Paste’
🚨 For YEARS, Americans were mocked, censored, and silenced for even mentioning Ivermectin — branded as nothing but “horse paste.” Doctors risked their licenses, patients were denied care, and the media ran cover for Big Pharma.
Now the FDA quietly admits: Ivermectin is fine to treat COVID.
👉 A cheap, Nobel Prize-winning medicine smeared to protect profits.
👉 Hundreds of thousands may have died needlessly while “experts” pushed endless boosters.
👉 Families were left in the dark — while the truth was ridiculed and suppressed.
The FDA has blood on its hands. Lives were lost. Trust was shattered. All for politics and profit. America deserves answers. America deserves accountability.
Imagine if you will during the PSYOP-19 scamdemic that Ivermectin administration was widely adopted, and that all of a sudden cases of cancer, Alzheimer’s, mood disorders, even Parkinson’s started plummeting (alongside BigPharma profits)? (See link for article and video)
The Red Cross Suppressed A Cure For Malaria in 2012, Causing Over Half A Million People To Die Every Year Since
More evidence that international health care organizations (and all governmental health care and regulatory agencies) are fully captured by Big Pharma.
I am going to start this post out with my standard declaration that: 1) I am not suicidal, 2) I am in good health, and 3) I am living my best life. For what that is worth.
The Red Cross Malaria Trial
“The Water Reference Center (WRC)” is a research center within the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC). In 2012, their CEO at the time, Klaas Proesmans, conducted a study testing the efficacy of a common water purification agent called chlorine dioxide to treat malaria. The treatment consisted of increasing the concentration in cups of drinking water to levels above those typically used solely for water purification. Note that this effective treatment was first accidentally discovered by an applied scientist working in Nigeria in 1982, as I reported in this prior post.
In that study, the WRC and the Ugandan Red Cross identified 154 patients from the community around Iganga, Uganda, using skin pricks to gather drops of blood from patients suspected of being ill with malaria. They then placed the blood on slides and examined them under a microscope to look for the malaria parasite. Then they treated the patients who were positive for malaria by giving them cups of water to drink that had been treated with chlorine dioxide in the form of what Jim Humble called “Master Mineral Solution” (a mixture of sodium chlorite and hydrochloric acid). They then had the patients return to the testing/study center daily for re-testing and clinical follow-up.
They rapidly cured 154 malaria patients within two days. Sounds historic, right? A cure for malaria had been found! But no, it was not to be. Not even close.
As word of the trial and its success began to circulate, the “authorities” sprang into action, culminating in the Ugandan Red Cross and the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) issuing statements denying any official involvement in the study. They then went even further, stating that no formal clinical trial or endorsement of MMS took place under their auspices. The IFRC also added that “chlorine dioxide is not approved for the treatment of malaria and that any suggestion of Red Cross involvement was misleading.” They even got the CEO of the Water Reference Center who had planned and conducted the trial… to deny it ever happened.
Interestingly, none of the statements above were published in an official Press Release or statement; they were instead communicated solely via quotes in an interview with an investigative journalist in a blatantly obvious “debunking article” published by Business Insider.
First, I will review the extensive evidence verifying both the conduct and results of that trial. Then I will cover the above “Disinformation Response” from the media and the Red Cross in more detail. However, to understand the importance of the documented evidence that I will provide below, you need to know that the Business Insider article tried to “debunk” the claim that the trial was done by: 1) claiming it never took place, and 2) that Red Cross officials were “duped” into taking part. Yes, I know, the argument contradicts itself – either the trial never took place or Red Cross officials were “duped” into taking part, you can’t have both. Later, you will see how they later reconciled those two statements. (See link for article and documentation and results of the trial)
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**Comment**
For those of you who are late to the party, know this: government ‘health agencies’ are not about health at all and have covered up and lied and continue to lie about effective, safe, cheap treatments for decades. Further, they are riddled with conflicts of interest and are in bed with Big Pharma.
Both ivermectin and chlorine dioxide have cured people of innumerable diseases.
New Lyme Blood Test LymeSeek Promises Earlier, More Accurate Diagnosis
Posted By: Dr. Daniel Cameron
Lyme disease is one of the few infections where patients are often diagnosed too late — not because they waited, but because testing could not detect the infection until later stages – if at all.
A new Lyme blood test called LymeSeekcould change that. It aims to revolutionize Lyme diagnostics by delivering significantly higher accuracy, especially in early disease detection — where current tests often fall short.
According to data presented at the 2025 Association for Diagnostics and Laboratory Medicine meeting, LymeSeek demonstrated over 90% sensitivity and specificity in detecting Lyme disease across all phases of illness — from early localized to post-treatment.
That’s a significant improvement over standard two-tier testing, which often misses early cases when treatment matters most. Reliable testing is particularly important since an estimated 30% of patients never develop the classic bull’s-eye rash, which most practitioners rely on for diagnosing the disease.
Why Current Lyme Testing Often Fails
Current Lyme disease tests miss many infections — especially early ones — mainly because of how they work and what they’re looking for.
They don’t detect the bacteria itself
Most current tests (like the CDC-recommended two-tier testing) look for antibodies your immune system makes against Borrelia burgdorferi. However, it can take several days to weeks for antibodies to develop. That means serologic testing can produce false negatives — especially in the first 2–4 weeks after infection. This is one of the biggest frustrations for providers treating patients in Lyme endemic areas. Many patients never test positive
The CDC’s recommended two-tier system is rigid and outdated
Patients are initially given an ELISA test. If positive or equivocal, they then receive the Western blot. If either of these test results are negative, the patient supposedly doesn’t have Lyme disease – even when they might.
This system was designed decades ago mainly for surveillance, not for highly sensitive early diagnosis.
Borrelia’s biology makes testing tricky
The bacteria changes the proteins it expresses at different stages of infection, meaning antibody targets aren’t consistent.
It can hide in tissues and reduce exposure to the immune system (immune evasion), which delays or blunts antibody production.
Strain and species variation
U.S. tests focus mainly on B. burgdorferi sensu stricto. If someone is infected with another species like: B. mayonii, B. garinii, or B. afzelii, testing may not detect those antigens, leading to a false negative result.
Past infection vs. active infection confusion
Once antibodies form, they can persist for months to years after treatment. Therefore, testing cannot distinguish whether an infection is new, ongoing, or old. A patient may have an old infection that has resolved and doesn’t require treatment.
What Makes This New Lyme Blood Test Different?
The new Lyme blood test uses a multiplexed antigen assay—testing for 10 different immune responses at once. Then, a machine learning algorithm interprets the results. This approach improves both sensitivity and specificity, especially in early disease when antibodies are still forming.
In head-to-head comparison:
In early disease (0–72 hours after EM rash), LymeSeek detected 100% of cases vs. just 37% with standard testing.
In post-treatment Lyme (6+ months after infection), LymeSeek identified 97% of cases vs. 46% with standard tests.
That means better detection without waiting for seroconversion, and better confirmation of past infection when patients present with persistent symptoms.
Will This Test Change Lyme Disease Care?
It could—eventually.
This new Lyme blood test may help:
Identify early Lyme before antibodies form
Confirm cases when no rash is present
Support diagnosis in patients with ongoing symptoms after treatment
Is the New Lyme Blood Test Available Now?
🚫 It is not yet FDA-approved or available for patient ordering through clinics or commercial labs.
ACES Diagnostics is currently working with the FDA on clinical trial pathways. The test has received a De Novo classification, meaning it’s being evaluated as a novel diagnostic tool—not just compared to current testing.
If approved, LymeSeek could be a game-changer for early Lyme detection and for patients with post-treatment symptoms who need better answers.
Final Thoughts
A new test can’t fix every challenge that comes with Lyme disease. But it could mean getting answers sooner, missing fewer cases, and giving doctors more confidence in diagnosing.
KU partners with Biotech Lab producing vaccines for Lyme disease and Chlamydia
Mon, 12/02/2024
Logan Pierson
The University of Kansas is helping to develop both a Lyme disease vaccine and a Chlamydia vaccine with Lawrence born biotechnology lab, Design-Zyme, and the projects all started with help from a KU graduate student.
Peter Petillo, Design-Zyme founder and CEO, and Professor Scott Hefty, from the KU school of molecular biosciences, act as the foundation for a partnership between university and industry. They said that they have known each other for almost 15 years and met through a mutual colleague at the University. Hefty said that their collaboration between commercial lab and academia gives graduate students and faculty that are early in their careers a lot of opportunity to learn.
Petillo agreed and added, “Most of the students coming out of the program are not going to work in academics. They’re going to work in some sort of an industrial setting.”
This partnership led to fifth year PhD candidate Lexie Cutter obtaining an internship at Design-Zyme, through Hefty.
While Hefty and Petillo had started a Lyme disease vaccine project, and Hefty had introduced the idea of developing a Chlamydia vaccine, it was Cutter’s work through the internship with Design-Zyme and Petillo which pushed the initial Lyme disease vaccine project forward. Cutter said Hefty helped put together the internship with Petillo two summers ago and that her project there was to produce the proteins which formed the Lyme disease vaccine.
KU Students, Faculty and Partners Progressing Vaccine Production
According to Petillo, Design-Zyme’s method for creating a vaccine consists of taking one protein from the disease-causing bacteria and bonding it to another. The proteins are meant to stimulate the immune system and build up a response to the bacteria, which causes a disease.
Petillo said the process for adding proteins together to create vaccines can be more difficult depending on the proteins and that it has been more difficult for the development of the Chlamydia vaccine. This has led to the Chlamydia vaccine ending up behind in development compared to the Lyme disease vaccine. As a result, Cutter is currently working on the continuing production of the Chlamydia vaccine, using the same method that she used when helping to create the Lyme disease vaccine.
However, the Lyme disease vaccine is progressing much faster and other faculty and students on the project have separate roles which contribute to the testing and research of the vaccine. This includes KU Lab Technicians Dominique Jaramillo and Nancy Schwarting.
Jaramillo and Schwarting said they handle mouse injections for the Lyme disease vaccine. This process involves directly injecting a mouse with the vaccine before using another syringe to inject the borrelia burgdorferi bacteria or the bacteria that causes Lyme Disease, into the mouse. (See link for article)
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**Comment**
Interestingly, the next step will be the ‘tick challenge study’ where they will collect ticks that have the ‘right form of the bacteria.’ This is an admission that the ‘vaccine’ will only be based upon this singular ‘right’ form. There’s numerous strains of borrelia that people have been infected with. This is a problem in itself, not to mention the fact patients are often coinfected with other pathogens simultaneously.
The author then regurgitates the accepted narrative that ticks have increased due to ‘global warming,’ which has been proven to be false. The article then goes on to state that there hasn’t been a Lyme vaccine since 2002 when LYMRrix was withdrawn by its manufacturer citing poor sales, as the reason – but adding as an afterthought that a ‘small portion’ who took it experienced arthritis.
Madison Area Lyme Support Group 