paul, jill, eric/babs

[Guest guest]

Ooooooo lots of unanswered questions with Babesia.

I have yet to meet (or talk to on-line) a person who's been

confirmed to have Babesia by positive babesia (stained) smear.

The only cases in the literature are from acute Babesia, where the

patient's on deaths door, (positive smear) and RBC exchange is

performed to save their life.

There isn't even a documented case of chronic human Babesia in the

literature.

No one knows if in Human babesia, there is a life-cycle liver

stage (as there is in Malaria) probably because researchers can't

slice up the liver and look at it the way they can with infected

animals.

In cows, only the spleenless become chronic - if they survive

the disease presentation. SOme breeds of dogs can be chronic -

but there's no good explanation on why.

I have also read that the drugs that work on Malaria don't work on

Babs .. but again no explanation in the literature.

Ive also heard about plenty of suspected Babs cases on-line who

don't respond to Mepron/Malrone so maybe that's true.

I tested positive on an IgM western Blot (from MDL) at the same bloof

draw I tested positive for Lyme by PCR.

I was negative for Babesia by stained smear from Focus Technologies

in Ca... but periodically in the past during some of my worst momens,

I had RBC fragments, and damaged RBCs upon a normal manual diff..

(if a Babs smear had been done then.. would I have had the physical

proof of Babes infection? we'll never know because Babs wasn't

suspected and no one knew I was spleenless untill a 2000 CTSCAN).

I often had an elevated temp 99 to 100.5 deg F, even though my

morning temp was sub-normal.

Based on the fact that I had a negtivbe smear, and that I was

functional, my Doc and I estimated my % infection of RBCs to be well

under 1%..

Because I am spleenless, I did a ton of research on Malaria (in

humans) and Babs in animals. It's the clearance and repair of the

RBCs (which is done in the spleen) that's the risk for the

spleenless.. it takes a month to clear the damaged RBCs in an

uncomplicated case of malaria in the spleenless as opposed to a week

if one has a spleen.

I took the 3rd world drug ARTEMOS with Doxy (5 day treatment) for

Malaria for Babs.. During treatment I came close to hypothermic

shock 3 times.

I made it though- and I never had another fever nor anther night

sweat, so I concluded from that - that I did have Babs, and that the

treament worked.

I haven't been re-tested for Babs, becuase I then turned my

attention to fighting Lyme.

N. thinks the western blot for Babs is not accurate (and that

FISH can detect Babs down to 0.1% infection.. so there's lots of

opinions on what the best test is.

I realize all these tests can be a crap shoot- and some more than

others.. but personally, I have to have SOME data I think is

reliable.. it's just hard to know what's accurate.

I haven't read anything about bone marrow being infected (by Babs)

in humans- I'd like to see Nick's reference.. or data..Not that I

doubt his word..

In my job we have a saying.. you collect only 50% of the data you

need and 50% of that is wrong.

Barb