posted
Does anyone know if I should be taking something else if Babesia is found or is the Zithro and Flagyl enough to kill it too? I still haven't received the test results but the Dr. thinks I may have that too. If the meds are really messing up my stomach, would it be better to be on shots- how do they work and do they cause any major side effects? Thanks for your help!
Posts: 1 | From Northern Virginia (Chantilly) | Registered: Jul 2013
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minoucat
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
Member # 5175
posted
Jo, I have never heard of zithro and flagyl being the meds of choice for babesia. Babesia is a piroplasm (protozoan), and is treated with the same drugs as used for malaria.
The usual combinations are mepron(atovaquone) (or malarone) and zithromax; clindamycin and oral quinine; sometimes Larium is used, but this can have severe side effects, including psychosis. The the Europeans use Riamet and another drug that I can't recall.
The herb artemisinin has been shown in clinical trials to be a very effective supplement to pharmaceuticals, in one trial doubling the clearance rate of the parasite. Some people have used artemesinin alone.
When we suspected babs, we started on the artemesinin right away, and had an instant reaction to it (headaches, irritability) indicating infection. We then added mepron/zith. I get my artemisinin from http://outletnutrition.com which sells the Nutricology brand at about half price.
Babesia sx for us that went away in the first week of tx were sweats, chills, and fever. Irritability, headache, and fatigue increased during the first 3 months, then dropped off dramatically. Here is the longer list of sx associated with babs: Symptoms: Fatigue, night sweats, fever, chills, weakness, weight loss, nausea, abdominal pain, diarrhea, cough, shortness of breath, headache, neck and back stiffness, dark urine or blood in urine
Our LLMD treats empirically, and uses tests as only adjuncts to dx -- if you have the sx, he treats any way. Thank heavens.
In our case, we are taking the babs drugs orally, and doing IM bicillin shots. So far so good on the stomach.
Treating for parasites in general seems to be an awfully good idea, too.
Good luck.
Editing to say my hubby uses plaquinol, too. This helped somewhat with the inflammation and joint pain, is thought to be a cyst buster, and is an antimalarial.
[This message has been edited by minoucat (edited 16 August 2004).]
posted
Jobrien, I do not think that Flagyl and Zithro is enough to treat babs. You can use Quinine + Clindamycin or Atovaquone + Zithro or Malarone or Artemisia plants like artemisia annua (sold by the name of artemisinin) or artemisia vulgaris. There's also a partly artemisia based medication available in Europe called Riamet. Plaquenil may help, too. It can also possibly kill lyme cysts amd might replace your flagyl. There's even more, search Pubmed for Babesia or Malaria treatments. I have also used nitrofurantoin(e), which has not been documented to be effective for it unfortunately. (see my recent post on it) Heparin is a good adjunct as it has antibabesial properties by itself and also helps the substances you use to go "everywhere" as it thins your blood. I'll search the heparin versus babs study and something on Plaquenil for lyme again and add it in another reply. Petra
Posts: 56 | From Bonn, NRW, Germany | Registered: Oct 2003
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posted
Here's the additional info. Push the buttons for full text if you look at the abstracts at the given links. Sometimes you will have access to the full text, sometimes not. With the heparin study it works.
Antimicrob Agents Chemother. 2004 Jan;48(1):236-41. Related Articles,Links
Growth-inhibitory effect of heparin on Babesia parasites.
Bork S, Yokoyama N, Ikehara Y, Kumar S, Sugimoto C, Igarashi I.
National Research Center for Protozoan Diseases, Obihiro University of Agriculture and Veterinary Medicine, Inada-cho, Obihiro, Hokkaido 080-8555, Japan.
We examined the inhibitory effects of three heparins on the growth of Babesia parasites. The multiplication of Babesia bovis, B. bigemina, B. equi, and B. caballi in in vitro cultures and that of B. microti in vivo were significantly inhibited in the presence of heparins, as determined by light microscopy. Treatment with various concentrations of heparin showed complete clearance of the intracellular parasites. Interestingly, a higher percentage of abnormally multidividing B. bovis parasites was observed in the presence of low concentrations of heparin. Furthermore, fluorescein isothiocyanate-labeled heparin was preferably found on the surfaces of extracellular merozoites, as detected by confocal laser scanning microscopy. These findings indicate that the heparin covers the surfaces of babesial merozoites and inhibits their subsequent invasion of erythrocytes.
Int Microbiol. 2002 Mar;5(1):25-31. Related Articles,Links
An in vitro study of the susceptibility of mobile and cystic forms of Borrelia burgdorferi to hydroxychloroquine.
Brorson O, Brorson SH.
Department of Microbiology, Vestfold Sentralsykehus, Tonsberg, Norway.
In this work the susceptibility of mobile and cystic forms of Borrelia burgdorferi to hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) was studied. The minimal bactericidal concentration (MBC) of HCQ against the mobile spirochetes was > 32 microg/ml at 37 degrees C, and > 128 microg/ml at 30 degrees C. Incubation with HCQ significantly reduced the conversion of mobile spirochetes to cystic forms. When incubated at 37 degrees C, the MBC for young biologically active cysts (1-day old) was > 8 microg/ml, but it was > 32 microg/ml for old cysts (1-week old). Acridine orange staining, dark-field microscopy and transmission electron microscopy revealed that the contents of the cysts were partly degraded when the concentration of HCQ was > or = MBC. At high concentrations of HCQ (256 microg/ml) about 95% of the cysts were ruptured. When the concentration of HCQ was > or = MBC, core structures did not develop inside the cysts, and the amount of RNA in these cysts decreased significantly. Spirochetal structures inside the cysts dissolved in the presence of high concentrations of HCQ. When the concentration of HCQ was > or = MBC, the core structures inside the cysts were eliminated. These observations may be valuable in the treatment of resistant infections caused by B. burgdorferi, and suggest that a combination of HCQ and a macrolide antibiotic could eradicate both cystic and mobile forms of B. burgdorferi.
PMID: 12102233 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]
Take care, Petra
Posts: 56 | From Bonn, NRW, Germany | Registered: Oct 2003
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lla2
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
Member # 2364
posted
babesia is NOT a bacteria like lyme, it cannot be treated with antibiotics like the ones you mentioned. it MUST be treated by antiprotozoals or antimalarials, as it is a protozaoan..........it WILL not go away on regular antibiotics...
you need either mepron with zithro or biaxin (a macrolide of some kind), or clindamycin adn quinine, and or artemesinin which is also often used effectively on here by many including myself in conjuction with one of hte above to eradicate the babeisa.
babesia is very tough to get rid of..not something you want to fool around with..and you DO need the correct meds, not what you are on....
Lisa
Posts: 4713 | From saunderstown, ri Usa | Registered: Apr 2002
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