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by Lonnie Marcum:
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In a paper titled: “Identification of Novel Zoonotic Activity of Bartonella spp., France” to be published March 2016 in Emerging Infectious Disease Journal, CDC researchers report that they have identified six strains of Bartonella in patients with chronic subjective symptoms and a history of tick bites.
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Three of the strains were B. henselae and three were from other animal-associated Bartonella species (B. doshiae, B. schoenbuchensis, and B. tribocorum).
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Six main points from this study of Bartonella:
Three of the strains were B. henselae and three were from other animal-associated Bartonella species (B. doshiae, B. schoenbuchensis, and B. tribocorum).
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Six main points from this study of Bartonella:
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1. “Certain Bartonella species are known to cause afebrile bacteremia in humans… Reports have indicated that animal-associated Bartonella species may cause paucisymptomatic bacteremia and endocarditis in humans.” (Note: afebrile = without a fever. Paucisymptomatic = having few symptoms. Bacteremia = presence of bacteria in the blood stream. Endocarditis = inflammation of the heart’s lining.)
1. “Certain Bartonella species are known to cause afebrile bacteremia in humans… Reports have indicated that animal-associated Bartonella species may cause paucisymptomatic bacteremia and endocarditis in humans.” (Note: afebrile = without a fever. Paucisymptomatic = having few symptoms. Bacteremia = presence of bacteria in the blood stream. Endocarditis = inflammation of the heart’s lining.)
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2. Nonspecific Symptoms of Bartonella include: “arthralgia, muscle pain, fatigue, headaches, visual blurring, neurocognitive symptoms.” (Arthralgia= joint pain.)
2. Nonspecific Symptoms of Bartonella include: “arthralgia, muscle pain, fatigue, headaches, visual blurring, neurocognitive symptoms.” (Arthralgia= joint pain.)
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3. They noted, “Chronic bacteremia caused by B. quintana causes few obvious symptoms apart from generalized fatigue and nonspecific leg pain.” (B. quintana = another strain of Bartonella.)
3. They noted, “Chronic bacteremia caused by B. quintana causes few obvious symptoms apart from generalized fatigue and nonspecific leg pain.” (B. quintana = another strain of Bartonella.)
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4. “The main complaint of the case-patients was chronic fatigue, but they also reported other subjective or nonspecific symptoms (or both), such as headaches and myalgia.” (Myalgia = muscle pain.)
4. “The main complaint of the case-patients was chronic fatigue, but they also reported other subjective or nonspecific symptoms (or both), such as headaches and myalgia.” (Myalgia = muscle pain.)
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5. In summary, their “major finding is the isolation of zoonotic Bartonella other than B. quintana in the blood of patients with poorly qualified syndromes. These results indicate that zoonotic Bartonella spp. infection may cause undifferentiated chronic illness in humans.” (With “poorly qualified syndromes” the authors are primarily referring to CFS-chronic fatigue syndrome. “Undifferentiated” symptoms are generalized complaints like joint or muscle pain, numbness, tingling, headache, insomnia, fatigue or “flu-like” symptoms. “Undifferentiated chronic illness” is basically an illness that we don’t have an explanation or a clear diagnosis for.)
5. In summary, their “major finding is the isolation of zoonotic Bartonella other than B. quintana in the blood of patients with poorly qualified syndromes. These results indicate that zoonotic Bartonella spp. infection may cause undifferentiated chronic illness in humans.” (With “poorly qualified syndromes” the authors are primarily referring to CFS-chronic fatigue syndrome. “Undifferentiated” symptoms are generalized complaints like joint or muscle pain, numbness, tingling, headache, insomnia, fatigue or “flu-like” symptoms. “Undifferentiated chronic illness” is basically an illness that we don’t have an explanation or a clear diagnosis for.)
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6. The authors state it is crucial to determine whether Bartonella is involved “because treatment for chronic Bartonella bacteremia (as for B. quintana) is particularly arduous and may require six weeks of doxycycline treatment together with three weeks of gentamicin, as these are the only antimicrobial drugs known to be effective in eradication of Bartonella.”
6. The authors state it is crucial to determine whether Bartonella is involved “because treatment for chronic Bartonella bacteremia (as for B. quintana) is particularly arduous and may require six weeks of doxycycline treatment together with three weeks of gentamicin, as these are the only antimicrobial drugs known to be effective in eradication of Bartonella.”
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Here’s my take away from this study: If someone with a tick bite tests negative for Lyme but continues to have chronic symptoms like those I’ve highlighted above, a weird striated rash (like the one pictured below), swollen lymph nodes, or has been diagnosed with fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue and/or myalgic encephalomyelitis, it would be wise to be tested for a Bartonella infection.
Here’s my take away from this study: If someone with a tick bite tests negative for Lyme but continues to have chronic symptoms like those I’ve highlighted above, a weird striated rash (like the one pictured below), swollen lymph nodes, or has been diagnosed with fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue and/or myalgic encephalomyelitis, it would be wise to be tested for a Bartonella infection.
*Note: Bartonella has been detected in lice, ticks, fleas, sand flies, mosquitoes, wild animals and house pets. It’s suspected that ticks can transmit the disease to humans, though that has not been definitively proven. While each of the patients in this study reported a tick bite within the previous 1-5 years, they each lived in the country and enough time had elapsed that another mode of transmission could have occurred.
Source: Emerging Infectious Disease Journal – CDC. Volume 22, Number 3 –March 2016.
Identification of Novel Zoonotic Activity of Bartonella spp., France.
Link: http://wwwnc.cdc.gov/eid/article/22/3/15-0269_article
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Lonnie Marcum is a licensed physical therapist in California. She has a family member with Lyme and co-infections. You can follow her blog at TenaciousPT.blogspot.com or on Twitter @LonnieRhea
Would someone at CDC or researches please tell the Insurance Co. how bad this is so they will cover medicines and suppliments we Lymies have to take each month and pay out of pocket. It is killing us just as much as Lyme and the co infections and the auto immune diseases it causes. Help!
I can’t believe you have almost gotten a vaccine for the zika virus and yet everyday people are struggling with the after affects of Rocky mountain spotted fever and lymes. I have taken doxy about 6 different times since 2011 and my levels go down and then out of nowhere they go up!!!! Help us please!!!! This is bad!!!!!
Unfortunately..they don’t care…Doxy won’t help Lyme..sorry to say..it doesn’t penetrate the biofilm..look into getting on tindamax.or flagl..
yes, these look like pink or red striae: striae are light or skin colored unless a person suffers from hypercortisolism – Cushing’s disease, which is a serious endocrine pathology. In the absence of Cushing’s disease (which can be ruled out by simple urine tests and the adrenal axis stimulation- or suppression- tests, it’s got to be Bartonella. Bartonela DNA would replicate in PCR, and the anti-Bartonella antibody should be detectable in the serum, at least in a while.
Try Neurolinkglobal.com to find out how your own body’s Immune sysystem can fight this infection
Some of us could never afford proper treatment no way to pay out of pocket we are just dying. When IV is needed it is denied.
When will the CDC wake up and stop listening to the Infectious Disease Society? Patients who see Lyme literate MD’s that practice outside of the strict guidelines are getting positive results and their patients are getting better. Yet these doctors get brought before the medical board questioning their treatment. The patients are on long term therapy using various antibiotics. The problem is insurance companies are refusing to pay for long term treatments. The meds are inexpensive and a lot cheaper then therapies for chronic fatigue etc. I am sick of evidence based medicine. We are unique individuals with bodies that may respond differently and should be treated on an individual basis. That is the art of medicine!!! Bernie Sanders please rescue al the patients and families suffering from chronic lyme and the injustice of the insurance companies. Mary Kaye, APN
I agree! We need insurance to help pay. We go to food drives for free old food so we can afford treatments and meds. It’s so unfair. Worked 2-3 jobs from age 17-40 and here I lost everything I saved for all my life. We need help. Most end up living in car to afford food and treatments. This NEED changed and please post these where our local doctors can all learn. They act like they weren’t educated at all and treat us like plague.
Rsearch the doctor who lost everything because he was properly diagnosing his patients with Lyme instead of MS, Fibro, etc. The CDC sued him. Meds to treat those other diseases are far more profitable for the pharmaceutical companies.
my 12 year old daughter had these exact stria on her back. the doctor kept saying it was stretch marks!! Finally found out she has lyme but bartinella came back negative and insurance refuses to pay for even the blood test!!
I was Diagnosed with This in Sept., 2014.. and only Because my Mammogram came back positive.. I was Told by a Nurse Practioner at LSU in Shreveport, La. that I had Breast Cancer with Lymph Node involvement. After going to Fiest Weller Cancer Center, they finally figured out that it was Bartonella from a cat that I had for 4 months.!i truly felt like I was dying, and was pushed away and disregarded by every physician that I brought my
Complaints to.. To this very day I still suffer from fatigue, joint pain, and muscle pain.
Please keep this seperate from Lyme/ Borrellia as it is a completely different infection, yet symptomology is very similar for certain problems experienced
Bartonella is not just a self limiting disease!
It can become intercellular infecting so many organs and tissues along with it being considered a stealth pathogen so it is very hard to detect especially via serology this also has the same issues for treatment as well
It absolutely astounds me how few Drs are even aware of Bartonella and the majority that are aware do not know about the latest studies and findings
This seems the same for many chronic illnesses
The medical industry and CDC who sugar coat everything have a lot of explaining to do
Teach your ID specialists
Treat your patients effectively
Quack DRs and treatments do not help the situation either
There are also many more Vectors for humans to acquire it than that of Borrelia
Two of probably the leading Specialists on Bartonella in the US do not recommend Doxy as it simply does not completely clear the infection
Please visit Galaxy diagnostics or OneHealth
Work together to develop best screening practices and better treatment protocols
If no positive tests for certain organisms are found than test these people under a microscope to find out what these people are harbouring
If a number have a novel bacterium or virus
You could probably assume that it’s causing disease
Governments Fund Proper research and treatments
So please– what information do we need to know about transmission from house pets, fleas,, lice and sand flies?
My son and I are suffering now. We had drought this summer. These little no seeums got out of the yard into my many plants that stay out In warm weather. These were brought in for winter. The springtail mites attacked us full force. We were not sure what was happening. By we figured it out and treated us and the house since October. Now we have these rashes. No doctor has helped. I went on Risperdol to help with my nerves. I know I’m not crazy. But I have to function. The med has helped my situation where my natural ability to deal with this was blown up. Kaboom. I was a wreck. I still have rashes. My sons are worse.