I am starting to wonder if I only have Bartonella and not Bartonella and Lyme borreliosis, as I got sick directly after being bitten up by mosquitoes and never had a tick on me.
However, my western blot test was way positive for lyme borreliosis (highest levels my doctor had ever seen). Is it possible certain strains of bartonella can produce a false positive for Lyme borreliosis?
Posted by Joe28 (Member # 33535) on :
should this be posted in the medical questions category?
Posted by TF (Member # 14183) on :
If your western blot was positive for lyme, you definitely have lyme disease.
The bartonella antibody will not cross-react with the lyme antibody, so it is impossible for bartonella to cause a positive western blot for lyme disease.
(The Western Blot test is a test looking for antibodies, not the particular germ itself. They know the molecular weight of the various parts of the lyme antibody that your body produces in response to the lyme bacteria. So, when those molecular weights show up, they say that your body is making antibodies to the lyme bacteria. Your body would only do that if the lyme bacteria were present in your body. You evidently are producing lyme antibodies like mad in order to get a very high response to the lyme Western Blot. That is a very, very good sign. That will help you as you treat these diseases.)
Mosquitoes can carry lyme disease in addition to bartonella with no problem. It does not take a tick bite to get lyme disease.