LymeNet Flash: Lyme versus Babesia-how do you know the difference

This is topic Lyme versus Babesia-how do you know the difference in forum Medical Questions at LymeNet Flash.

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Posted by jlovelace (Member # 6755) on :

I have been diagnosed with Lyme and do not know if I have the co-infection yet of Babesia. Many members of my support group tend to think I do sympomatically.. Is there a code that I can look at on my blood work that will help answer this before my next docto's appointment. If so, please shere. Also how do they treat both at the same time. Have been on Rocephin for twelve weeks and starting my second week of clindamyacin. Still feel like a truck hit me. Please help.

Posted by Starphoenix (Member # 2402) on :

Welcome!

It can prove difficult to differentiate between the two, as they may share common symptoms. Typical symptoms of Babesia include sweating, chills, nausea and/or vomiting, "air hunger" where you just can't seem to get enough oxygen, fevers....

Some doctors will treat in the absence of a positive test. There are different tests for Babesia. Two are the PCR and blood smear.

Often, if a patient has been treated adequately for Lyme and still has symptoms, a doctor will consider this co-infection more seriously.

Babesia isn't a bacteria; it is a protozoan parasite. Antibiotics can't treat it. Common treatments are Mepron with Zithromax (an antimalarial; the Zithromax is supposedly to prevent resistance to the Mepron) and Artemesia (an herb).

I hope this helps you!

Steph

Posted by Corestar (Member # 5980) on :

Hi Jlovelace,

I have Lyme plus two co-infections, Babs and Erlichia. I was on Doxy for a while. Now I am on Mepron and Zithromax.

When I saw my LLMD last week he felt the lyme symptoms were worsening since we are targeting the Babs right now.

You've gotten a good response above about symptoms. My LLMD also says Lyme symptoms include Fatigue, Brain Fog, Migrating Pain, Numbness and Tingling, and Sleep problems.

Babs symptoms are Night Sweats, Muscle Pain, Breathlessness, Headaches and Dizziness and feeling Spacey. It's difficult because there are similarities.

My doc wanted to add Ceftin to again address the Lyme as well. The chronic fatigue and pain are my two biggest complaints.

The key here is to get a good LLMD, get good reliable blood testing, and dig deep for patience. It can be a rough ride but with the right support we will hopefully all get back to the people we were before Lyme.

Best of luck to you and I hope you are feeling better soon!

Ann

Posted by liz28 on :

For me, the babs caused a constant "rollercoaster" sensation, with debilitating, relapsing fevers every four days or so. Also, I would take mountains of Lyme abx, but could never recover beyond a certain point.

When I started taking artemisinin (which is different than artemisia) and mepron, the relapsing fevers abruptly stopped, and people IMMEDIATELY noticed a difference. I mean, within a week.

This girl who kept coming up to me a year ago and telling me how... well, sick I looked, suddenly ran up to me and screamed, "OH MY GOD, YOU LOOK GREAT!!!" A Quest nurse who has seen me for four years suddenly said, Hey, you look much better. And I can really see the difference when talking to new people--when I had babs, I came off as pretty intense, because I was overcompensating for the dizziness and unfocused feeling.

I also feel less fragile, have better reading comprehension, and have a stronger sense of preparing for the future. It seems like the body instinctively knows when it should bother making plans.

Unfortunately, treating babs will also stir up anything else you may have. In my case, that meant bartonella.

Posted by HaplyCarlessdave (Member # 413) on :

I had a similar experience to Liz28, with the babesia-- I just could not make much progress against the lyme until I did a few months of artimesia/artimisinin, garlic, and atovaquone with proguinil ('malarone')
Once I got the babs under control I make much faster headway against the lyme.
I knew I had babs from a blood test analyzed by Bowen labs.
DaveS

quote:
Originally posted by liz28:
For me, the babs caused a constant "rollercoaster" sensation, with debilitating, relapsing fevers every four days or so. Also, I would take mountains of Lyme abx, but could never recover beyond a certain point.
When I started taking artemisinin (which is different than artemisia) and mepron, the relapsing fevers abruptly stopped, and people IMMEDIATELY noticed a difference. I mean, within a week.

[This message has been edited by HaplyCarlessdave (edited 12 January 2005).]

Posted by Marnie (Member # 773) on :

The symptoms are different.

For a clue as to what babesia depletes, find my Updated Nutshell post. Cut, paste and drop it into a MS word file then search for the word, "babesia".

Pay close attention to a small section that mentions vets who cured dogs of neuro babesia in the 1970s. See what they used.

Amazing!

Posted by Aniek (Member # 5374) on :

The tests for babesia cannot rule it out. They don't have tests for all the different strains.

The symptoms that my LLMD suspects are babesia are foot pain, muscle pain in my legs, and dizziness and vertigo. I'm being treated conservatively with the herb artemisinin along with plaquenil (an anti-malerial that helps reduce join inflammation) and ketek (a new abx that may actually also kill parasites).