I'm wondering if my son has babesia but he has tested negative in the past.
Does anyone know if the babesia antibody panel or the babesia FISH tests are any more reliable than the the lyme and bartonella tests? I know there are many false negatives with those.
I am awaiting recent testing to see if anything has changed over the past 4 months since he was previously tested for babs. He did test positive for lyme and two strains of bartonella at that time.
Thanks,
tickbattler
Posted by Lymetoo (Member # 743) on :
It's very common. Does he have the symptoms??
Posted by tickbattler (Member # 14873) on :
He's only 4, so it's tough to get a clear idea of his symptoms, but he does have light night sweats and does tire easily. He also has headaches much of the time and he iron was recently tested and it was on the very low side of normal; close to being too low. He also sees orange and blue spots quite often.
Those symptoms sound like they could be babs to me, but I know bart can also cause the night sweats and headaches as well.
What do you think?
Thanks,
tickbattler
Posted by adamm (Member # 11910) on :
There are at least a dozen species that they cannot test for.
You should check out the website of a fellow named Schaller,
who wrote a book on the organisms.
Posted by Lymetoo (Member # 743) on :
Sounds pretty suggestive of babesia.
Posted by richedie (Member # 14689) on :
babesia FISH tests are considered very accurate. EgeneX has a very acurate test.
Posted by Lymetoo (Member # 743) on :
quote:Originally posted by richedie:
babesia FISH tests are considered very accurate. IgeneX has a very acurate test. [/qb]
Wrong on both counts!!! No test is accurate when you're dealing with a hundred different strains and they only test for a few.
The FISH is great IF it comes back positive...but it's highly likely to come back negative.
"Approximately 25%- 66% of Babesia patients are known to be co-infected with Lyme disease. These symptoms may continue for long periods of time, decrease, then return.
A low Babesiosis titer (IgG) often indicates a chronic infection. An acute or current infection may show a higher reading on the IgM test initially.
There are over 100 species of Babesia in the United States but only ONE or TWO species are currently checked by commercial labs." Posted by psano2 (Member # 11711) on :
I never tested positive for babesia, but I'm responding well to babesia treatment, fwiw.
Posted by richedie (Member # 14689) on :
Sorry Lymetoo, I understand...I take it back. I know Bart is tough as well....but they have a new test coming out in the fall!
My Babesia FISH came back positive as did my other Babesia test from IGX. For this reason, they felt is was a confirmation for Babs as well as other TBD. Would you agree?
Thanks!
Posted by richedie (Member # 14689) on :
bump
Posted by johnnyb (Member # 7645) on :
Yes,
Even though my symptoms screamed "babesia!" I was not able to get treatment due to testing negative for babesia microti.
Skip ahead 3 years later (to early this year), and they finally start testing for babesia duncani on the east coast- guess what my result was? + + + + + + + + +
And as mentioned before, they are not able to test for all the strains. My LLMD was not able to prescribe meds for me without the positive result, so she couldn't treat me properly.
Wish we had better tests for this.
Posted by tickbattler (Member # 14873) on :
Thank you all for your replies. Just got the test results back today and my son is positive for babs microti through the babesia FISH test.
I also asked my ped to do a babesia microti antibody panel through Quest since it was covered through insurance and that came back as negative, even though there was a low titer of 1:16 for IGG and 1:20 for IGM.
Seems to me that if a titer is present, then doesn't that mean there at least has been some exposure to babs at some time? I can't understand why they would consider that a negative!
Oh well, thank goodness I did the FISH test and caught it.
Our ped LLMD has prescribed Mepron in addition to the azith and bactrim. My poor little guy. It is heartbreaking that he needs to be on all of these meds.
tickbattler
Posted by richedie (Member # 14689) on :
Nobody mentioned Bactrum to me!
My LLMD said I would have been treated regardless of test outcome!
Is the babesia microti and dunconi treated the same?
Posted by tickbattler (Member # 14873) on :
Sorry richedie - the bactrim is for the bart that my son has. He now has lyme, babs and two strains of bart.