I am presenting a series of images from blood smears from my in house lab. I find this to be a truly remarkable image.
I have treated this patient for severe, relenting disease for a period of two years. She is on a second round of IV antibiotics. Progress has been slow. Night sweats, nightly fevers, air hunger, headaches and muscle pain have been prominent, persisting symptoms. She consistently tested negative for B. microti and B. duncani until recently. She now has a high titer of antibodies for WA1 or Babesia duncani after numerous rounds of anti-malaria therapies. I am not sure she has B. duncani. I think she may be infected with a cross-reacting species. This sero-conversion as more commonly seen in Lyme Western Blots. She has failed every regimen for Babesia. This smear was obtained which she is on IV clindamycin and quinine (which she tolerates well). This smear shows a typical Babesia "bowtie." This image was obtained from a fresh smear stained with Wright Giemsa.
7 comments:
amazing, I didn't realize babesia resided in rbc
Possibly both my sons have Babesia Duncani. My oldest did get an Igenex positive for B. duncani.
Currently he is responding to Azithromycin 250 mg once/day, with the the addition of Crypto-Plus, and Artemesia. His dr is adding Mepron to his regime. We had to homeschool our son last year because he was having such anxiety, OCD continuing to worsen, would panic and break down into to tears when we would pull in to drop him off at school.
Thank God we began treatment with Azithromycin. With just the Azithromycin his anxiety lessened, so much so that he has returned to school. He was also taking the Crypto-plus, and Artemsia as well.
We have found that when we stopped the Azithromycin, his anxiety, panic attacks, and brutally painful headaches would return. So, the dr said to keep him on it. Our son did test positive for Borrelia burgdorferi, and also had high titers for Strep.
We figured the antibiotic along with the natural remedies are killing off the Babesia, possibly strep, and maybe being effective as well for the Borrelia. We are going to be holding our breath when we start the Mepron..low dosage initially to make sure there is not an allergic reaction.
I on the other hand am on IV Clindamycin, 900ml/twice a day and also take plaqeunil (name brand). I also take the Crypto-plus. I have felt improvement in my symptoms, clearer head, less depression, less night sweats, but I have a ways to go. I just started 2 weeks ago on the Clindamycin. And I do take Flagyl for a couple days during the week. My body can handle 500 mg 2 - 3 times per day.
I am so grateful that my son is improving, but he still has symptoms remaining, though they are lessening. I hope with the addition of the Mepron we can eradicate the Babesia Duncani.
I have been following your blog and appreciate so much your wisdom, experience, and courage to be a warrior against this truly complicated and complex disease. I pray your patient will respond to whatever you try next.
Blessings to you Dr. Jaller!
LymeMD,
You might be interested in reading the letter I got from the Virginia State Dept of Health recently in regard to reporting my husband's CDC confirmed case of babesia.
Hubby died on 10/9/12 from ARDS (lung failure) and a splenic infarction (blood clot in the spleen). The hospital and autopsy results found no cause for the ARDS. I believe that the cause was babesia or a similar blood borne protozoan.
http://flash.lymenet.org/ubb/ultimatebb.php/topic/1/126290
Hubby had a positive titer for Babesia Duncani (WA-1) of 1:2048 in late December 2010. After 4 rounds of IV clindamycin and quinine with malarone added the titer decreased to 1:512. He then did 2 more rounds of Q&C but for 21 days instead of 10 days again with malarone added.
Then he switched to lariam, doxy, and malarone. After 11 months of continuous treatment he again had a positive blood smear from Clongen.
So then we added oral flagyl, artemisinin and ivermectin (horse paste from Tractor Supply) to the doxy, malarone and lariam. After 4 months he finally stopped all antibiotics, anitmalarials, antiparasitics and killing herbs for the first time in 3 years. He actually felt the best he had in 10 years.
But the babesia symtoms of mild sweats, headaches, and off balance/dizziness and increased nausea were starting to come back even before he got the 2 new tickbites.
At that point resuming meds including IV's just didn't work and the seizure like spells that had been gone for over a year and a half became a major issue again.
3 1/2 months after the 2nd new tickbite he had 3 days of shortness of breath before going to the ER and the lung issues rapidly progressed into ARDS.
On the morning Steve died we got the test result from Clongen -- his blood smear was positive for babesia. Subsequent testing from Fry Lab of blood drawn postmortem found by PCR 3 different unnamed uncategorized blood borne protozoan listed in the GenBank.
There is obviously some confusion over which species of babesia hubby had and I am hoping the Virginia Dept of Health or the CDC can provide some answers.
Bea Seibert
PANDAS. Other treatments may be available.
In blood smears there are a number of different parasites of different sizes too big to be bacteria. Unfortunately the CDC has not been helpful to date.
Bea, I am so sorry to hear about your husbands death. I know he suffered a great detail. And I believe he is in a better place. No-one could ever had such a supportive wife. We know you did everything you could do that is humanly possible.
I have some fascinating news re Morgellons, will post soon.
In blood smears there are a number of different parasites of different sizes too big to be bacteria. Unfortunately the CDC has not been helpful to date.
Bea, I am so sorry to hear about your husbands death. I know he suffered a great detail. And I believe he is in a better place. No-one could ever had such a supportive wife. We know you did everything you could do that is humanly possible.
I have some fascinating news re Morgellons, will post soon.
How did your son's contract this parasite?
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