Topic: Babesia treatment- just malarone, will this work?
ktkdommer
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posted
My oldest, symptom free son is heading off to college next week for his sophomore year. His lab work reflects that babesia is still active in his system.
His treatment plan will be to take his full abx treament one week a month as he did have some herxing in June.
Part of his treatment is malarone, 6 tablets a day. He will continue this every day, which means he will be taking just malarone without his zith for 3 weeks a month.
Will malarone be effective without zith? Can you fight babesiai on just malarone? Any thoughts or experiences?
He did take artemesia for 2 years at a pulse of 10 days a month at high doses. He started malarone in January at a low dose and has worked his way up to maximum.
What can I read to understand this solo attack of babesia?
Thanks everyone!
-------------------- Things are never dull. After 3 fighting Lyme, 2 are in remission. Youngest is still sick, age 22. He has new diagnosed Chiari Malformation and Ehlers Danlos Syndrome. Posts: 1366 | From Perrysburg, Ohio | Registered: Nov 2010
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seekhelp
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No one I've ever read about here beat Babesia with just Malarone. Everyone, including the experts Bea and Manybites, says many drugs needed at once.
Posts: 7545 | From The 5th Dimension - The Twilight Zone | Registered: Mar 2008
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RZR
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What lab work was done to show babesia is still present? What lab was used?
-------------------- Tick bite May 2009 Diagnosed June 2009 Posts: 2329 | From SouthEast | Registered: Jun 2009
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ktkdommer
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My son has not reacted to malarone or Zhang's artemesia 2. He did ramp up slowly to both.
He has been on GSE for almost 2 years.
ECP is used to measure babesia. He has come down from 94 to 22, but needs to be at 10 or lower.
I appreciate the replies.
-------------------- Things are never dull. After 3 fighting Lyme, 2 are in remission. Youngest is still sick, age 22. He has new diagnosed Chiari Malformation and Ehlers Danlos Syndrome. Posts: 1366 | From Perrysburg, Ohio | Registered: Nov 2010
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TF
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posted
Let me just post the notes I took from Dr. H's talk on babesiosis at the 2011 Lyme Conference.
Notice what he says at the very end about patients who can't clear babs taking low dose malarone to maintain them.
Here are the notes:
2011 ILADS Conference, Toronto, Canada
Lyme & Babesiosis: Updates on Treatment & Diagnosis 2011
Dr. H 10/28/11
He has 20 years of experience treating lyme; more than 12,000 chronic patients
He was in France and China discussing babesiosis. Talked with Chinese CDC regarding parasites
Some of his patients get better with glutathione alone. It opens up the detox pathways (is an anti-oxidant)
Borrelia miyamotoi is showing up in ticks in Hyde Park, NY. This strain is in Japan. We can�t test for it.
There is a new ehrlichia species also found.
Indicators of bad outcome with babesiosis:
male sex, extremely high WBC
We see blood transfusion babesiosis in California. WA-1 is now in the Northeast U.S.. It is found along the entire eastern seaboard. It is difficult to get a positive test for it. LabCorp has a WA-1 test. The FISH through Igenex is also very useful.
He treats with clindamycin with azithromycin, also Mepron, then malarone. There is lots of Mepron resistance. So, he adds Septra (Bactrim). This works well. Also, he uses much higher doses of Mepron due to the Mepron resistance.
He uses coartem (which has Artemisinin in it) Dosage is 4 twice per day. Take at 7 a.m. and 3 p.m.; then switch to 7 a.m. and 7 p.m. It can be pulsed once per month.
You can�t combine this with any med that affects the QT interval.
Babs is spreading world-wide. Babs also suppresses the immune system (based on a study of b. microti)
Artemisinin is not as effective now as it was in the past. Use art when coartem doesn�t cure the person. He no longer uses ketek.
Beta blockers (blood pressure medicines) control these types of parasites. So, use them as an antagonist. We need a study on this. Heparin may also inhibit babs. Need a large study on this.
Curcumin (a herb)--he is now using it to treat babs. Published studies show it is useful for malaria.
Cryptolepis has been used in Africa for malaria. There is a published study in Ghana. It had a 93% cure rate (a 50% cure rate in 3 days; 90% cure rate in 7 days) You can get it at: www.woodlandessence.com
If adrenal function is low (patient has a low cortisol), they will not respond to antibiotics.
He told of a patient with intractable babs. They were treated for babs for 5 years and were not cured. Then, he gave them 1 teaspoon of cryptolepis 3 times per day with Byron White herbs. This is making the patient feel well. He hasn�t found any side effects with the cryptolepis. It may not be curative. It lowers the parasite load and strengthens the patient�s immune system.
Brucellosis also causes night sweats, so check for this in a patient with night sweats.
Use malarone for the patient who can�t clear babs. Low dose to maintain them.
We need new treatment options for babs.
Posts: 9931 | From Maryland | Registered: Dec 2007
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BoxerMom
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Babesia is less likely to become resistant to Malarone because of the second drug. That said, the bioavailability of Malarone is much lower than Mepron, even at 6 pills/day.
Even for a moderate level of infection, I would not be comfortable with this program. I would want to add a daily macrolide, Zith or Biaxin, and rotate anti malarial herbs.
Just my 2 cents. I relapsed with Babesia after being symptom-free (for Babs) for 18 months. I've been fighting it ever since.
Solo Malarone feels like maintenance. With his low level, he should go for complete remission.
BoxerMom
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posted
I should add that my full-on relapse was preceded by intermittent low-level herxing in response to herbs. I did not have any symptoms.
Not trying to scare you. As you well know, these infections are serious and debilitating. Get him well. The fact that he is young is a huge plus. Strong immune system. He can fully recover.
ktkdommer
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Member # 29020
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Thank you kindly, Boxer and TF.
Is malarone really that inferior to mepron?
He started on mepron but then went away to college and it just wasn't cool and had to be refrigerated so switched to malarone.
Yes, young, healthy and fit is a good thing.
Manyibtes: my oldest is on tindamax, zith, amox and malarone. I just set up his pills for college with 3 weeks of malarone and zith with supplements and then the 4th week of malarone, zith, tindamax and amox.
Is there an artesmesia product that is stronger than Zhang's art 2?
-------------------- Things are never dull. After 3 fighting Lyme, 2 are in remission. Youngest is still sick, age 22. He has new diagnosed Chiari Malformation and Ehlers Danlos Syndrome. Posts: 1366 | From Perrysburg, Ohio | Registered: Nov 2010
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posted
which dosage of Artemisinin do you take/give when taking it continiously (not pulsed)?
Posts: 185 | From Germany | Registered: May 2012
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TF
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Member # 14183
posted
jupiter, you should always pulse artemisinin. If you don't, your intestines stop absorbing it. Waste of money and no benefit to your body.
Posts: 9931 | From Maryland | Registered: Dec 2007
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Check "Glory57"'s post. Don't mean to rock the boat but I just don't know how we can really tell what we are treating. It all seems so sketchy...
How can you tell if it's babesia or some if it's some other protozoa - like the new Dr. F bug? It's a protozoa, too - supposedly.
Posts: 7772 | From Northeast, again... | Registered: Oct 2006
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nonna05
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
Member # 33557
posted
anybody?? about timing and brands etc.. question up a couple post.
for babs with these meds what were the negative reactions???/
TF's notes ,very interesting Manybites list, What has worked best ....
If we are getting new strains, does that mean for recent bites ?
Could it be from older 5-6 years ,but these new names are just getting figured out?? just discovered??
It's weird ,cause my regular ,friendly , intern doctor wanted me to take Zith. everyday and .
Clyndamycin sp? M, w, F.......in general for LD.
Trying to figure out what would help me .....
Then he was going to leave it to me to figure the supplements out..
Would that have made any headway???
Here's the next ding-dong Question..
Will drinking Tonic Water help the other Babs treatment work better???? Quinine
I know ,,I should,take a brain nap
Anybody about timing on treatment relief with Babs
Posts: 2563 | From Denver,CO | Registered: Aug 2011
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nefferdun
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I was very sick with babesia duncani. I did 5 months of zithro and mepron with some reduction in symptoms but I was still very sick. I switched to malarone and zithro with rounds of coartem every 2-3 weeks.
I suddenly developed an allergy to zithromax and had to quit it so that left me on just malarone and the rounds of coartem. I believe I got rid of the babesia on this combo. I have not treated babesia since last fall. Currently I am treating protomyxzoa.
If your son is symptom free, I believe the malarone might be enough but I would pulse rounds of coartem to make sure. Once a month would probably be enough.
The problem is you can't take Coartem with a lot of other drugs. Maybe your son could take the malarone when he pulses the other drugs if they don't interact and then pulse coartem alone. Just a thought.
-------------------- old joke: idiopathic means the patient is pathological and the the doctor is an idiot Posts: 4676 | From western Montana | Registered: Apr 2009
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Everyone, including the experts Bea and Manybites, says many drugs needed at once.
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