My LLMD and I agreed that I had Lyme with the co-infection of Babesiosis. After a year and a half we both agree the Babs is resolved. Now I believe it's time to treat the Lyme. My LLMD believes I also have Bartenella, so that, as with all co-infections, must be treated first. I do not believe I have Bart, but want to be sure before I make a stand. Tonight I am having trouble with my search for info on Bart. If some of you have good links you could give me, I'd really appreciate it! Take care, Beth
Posted by lymie tony z (Member # 5130) on :
there's really not too much about lyme or coinfections you won't find here...
but bartonellosis is a disease caused by infection with bartonella bacilliformis transmitted by female sandflies(or ticks)
first clinical stage is noneruptive and called Oroya fever...severe febrile hemolytic anemia...
the second stage is eruptive and is called verruga peruana...it is marked by appearance of small tumors on the skin and mucuous membranes (syn Carrion's disease)
This is the disease in a nutshell except where it pertains to coinfection with Bb or babs... It may also have salmonella as a coinfection to bart...
ain't this disease just swell!?
I would'nt argue too much with a llmd that wants to go for bart pre Bb...
zman
Posted by Jill E. (Member # 9121) on :
Hi,
To add to Tony's information, there are actually several strains of Bartonella. The one that you may find the most information about is Bartonella Hensalae, which is commonly called Cat Scratch Disease or Cat Scratch Fever in traditional medical information. That is the strain that most Bartonella tests look for. I had to get specialized testing to also look for Bartonella Bacilliformis.
As with all tick-borne diseases, there are many strains, and tests only test for a few.
You can get Bart from the tick or fleas, but also from cat bites or scratches if the cat is infected.
In cases like mine, Bartonella seems to cause severe central nervous system symptoms such as tremors, myoclonic jerking and other uncontrollable body movements, tingling in the nerves, etc. I don't have any of the symptoms Tony described. We are each different.
There is a school of thought by one of the most famous Lyme doctors that if a person has central nervous system symptoms that outweigh the other Lyme symptoms, Bartonella is likely involved.
Jill
Posted by kelmo (Member # 8797) on :
I think there are a lot of overlapping symptoms. My daughter has a lot of brain involvement, as well as joint/muscle/nerve pain.
She has dry eyes and mouth and gastro. I don't think there is a system of her body that isn't whacked out some way.
She tested positive for two strains of Bart, nothing else.
Kelly
Posted by david1097 (Member # 3662) on :
You might ask your Dr about using a drug that is known to be good for both bartonella and Lyme. There as a number of them and they are described in the ILADS treatement guidleines. I think most Dr's will start with these. Bart can cause all sorts of odd symptoms and when mixed with Lyme the picture becomes very complex. Bart alone has a nasty reputation for being hard to treat due to is persistence. The same holds for Lyme. Togetehr they can be very difficuelt ot deal with at times.
There are some "specialized" drugs that have been used for bartonella (but not much good for lyme) but I think they are a second line of defense. Based on your response to the drugs, I suspect that the Dr will taylor your regime to something that is optimally effective.
There is a lot of reference material on bartonella, but it can be confusing as there are MANY variations of the same bacteria, some with odd symptoms and others with high risk of acute death. Since You are still alive I guess we could assume that it is not one of the real bad ones. For some conservative references try looking at something like Emedicine.com to start. They however only give the run of the mill write up.
Posted by trueblue (Member # 7348) on :
Although I have exhibited all the symptoms on the symptom page...except the exclusively female symptoms...
I have never tested positive for any of the coinfections.
Now this means I suspect one of two things...
Lyme or Bb can and does cause all my symptoms usually attributed to other coinfections....
OR
OF course the tests that I had done stink and I have coinfections previously not detected...
I believe either can be true...
zman
Posted by Lisianthus (Member # 6631) on :
I tested positive for Bart after a year of being on abx. I've never had the stretch marks though. My LLMD has me on Minocycline he said this will hit Bart and lyme at the same time. I have been doing very well on it.
My twin sons also (had) Bart. They both had the Bartonella stretch marks, which are gone now. It was probably a year of Mino before the marks disappeared. They were both on Doxy and Mino and are currently still on abx. BTW- neither one of them had tested positive for Bart.
Lisi
Posted by caat (Member # 2321) on :
I sort of fixed the link in case you looked at my site. This is pretty good. I haven't updated my site in a while- quite a few dead links. You might try Lymeinfo; http://www.lymeinfo.net/index.html
Recommendations for Treatment of Human Infections Caused by Bartonella Species J. M. Rolain,1 P. Brouqui,1,2 J. E. Koehler,3 C. Maguina,4 M. J. Dolan,5 and D. Raoult1,2*
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