Babesiosis Tick Disease Co-Infection on The Rise?

Why is Babesiosis, one of the many tick-co-infections on the rise? 

Babesiosis is caused by protozoal parasite, Babisia microti or its cousins. It is not a bacterial infection like the other Lyme co-infections. Malaria is also a protozoal parasite and there are similar symptoms.  The difference is Malaria is passed through mosquitos and Lyme is by ticks..

“Babesia is most commonly spread in the U.S. by the black-legged or deer tick, also known as the Ixodes scapularis. The parasite is usually transmitted when ticks are in the nymph stage and are often found in grassy, wooded, and brush areas. Nymph deer ticks are tiny, meaning many people may not realize they’ve been bitten.”

https://igenex.com/tick-talk/different-types-of-babesia/

It is not that Babesiosis is actually increasing as many articles state, but that they are testing for this co-infection more often now and that there are more accurate tests to diagnose it now. Today people and more doctors are aware of this tick co-infection and so the official numbers are going up.   According to the CDC, it is the milder winters here in the US.

The CDC considers it one of the least common co-infections but is considered one of the most common infections by Lyme doctors and Igenex.  Ask those who have recently been diagnosed with a Babesia infection after being sick for months or years, they would disagree. Many of these patients were diagnosed only recently when antibiotics did not take away their symptoms after being treated for Lyme only. In many cases, they paid thousands to go to a Lyme literate doctor and get those co-infection specialized tests.

What is sad is there are many thousands who are infected with Babesiosis and not diagnosed and getting proper treatment. There are differences in symptoms of the various tick diseases.  Some of the symptoms are shared by all the co-infections but some symptoms are more severe in each co-infection.

Where are cases increasing according to the CDC? 

I again emphasize that babesia has been ignored through the years and still is grossly underdiagnosed.  Up until recently there were not tests to adequately diagnose this co-infection. 

“Among the states that do require reporting, eight saw significant increases in case numbers from 2011 to 2019, according to the CDC’s first comprehensive national surveillance on babesiosis. In three states — Vermont, Maine and New Hampshire — case numbers increased so much that the CDC says babesiosis should be considered endemic. Increases also were noted in states where the disease already was endemic: Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Connecticut and Rhode Island.”

https://www.npr.org/2023/03/17/1164291434/babesiosis-tick-disease-northeast

 

Why is Babesiosis so undiagnosed and untreated?

Babesiosis is different from the other tick co-infections because it is a protozoal parasite that affects red blood cells and destroys them.  The other co-infections are bacterial. Some of the antibiotics and herbs used on the other tick co-infections do not work on Babesiosis.  It needs a different protocol whether treated with antibiotics or herbs. Most often, it is not even tested for when you go to the doctor, so it is not treated properly if at all.

Babesiosis symptoms include: Night and day sweats, air hunger shortness of breath, dry, chronic cough, fullness of throat, difficulty in swollowing, severe headaches, dizziness, light-headedness, capillary angiomas, vasculitis, easy bruising, symptoms of the head, sinus and jaw, Bell’s Palsy, nausea, ear ringing, blurry vision, nightmares, brain symptoms of being spacy, woozy, or impending doom, and failure to respond to Lyme treatment protocols.

“The agency says that the parasite can be transmitted via a blood transfusion, and that those who contract the disease through contaminated blood have “significantly worse health outcomes.” What is Babesiosis? The tick-borne disease that’s on the rise in 8 states : NPR

Note: Often you have both Lyme disease, Babesia, and other co-infections as well at the same time. You will have symptoms from both Lyme and Babesia occurring at the same time. Most doctors will refuse to test for co-infections if you test positive for Lyme.

More Severe Symptoms when sick with both can include hemolytic anemia, central nervous system disturbances, high fevers, shaking chills, transverse myelitis which is inflammation of the spinal cord with arm and leg impairment, severe arthritis symptoms, acute respiratory distress, depression, renal failure, thrombocytopenia or a low blood platelet count, and death.

 

“Babesia can also increase the duration of illness with Lyme disease. Babesia patients can remain symptomatic for years with constitutional, musculoskeletal, or neurological symptoms. One study found that 50% of coinfected patients were symptomatic for 3 months or longer, compared to only 4% of patients who had Lyme disease alone. [7] Meanwhile, one-third of patients with a history of both Babesia and Lyme disease remained symptomatic an average of 6 years. [2]”

The Beginners Guide to Lyme Disease by Nicola McFadzean, N.D., Chapter 9, page 77

Healing Lyme by the late Stephen Harrod Buhner, one of the great experts on Lyme. He is considered one of the top three Lyme Disease and its co-infection experts. Pages 179,180.181

Testing for Babesia

There are over 100 different forms of the Babesia protozoa. There are only 3 that generally affect people. Babisia microti is the main one found in the Central and Eastern US.  A new type of babesia called WA-1 was recently discovered as the cause of human diseases on the Pacific Coast in Washington and California. It has since been renamed to B. duncani. The new tests that are available are still often not sensitive enough and false negatives are frequent. These tests are not often covered by insurance and are very expensive.   

Igenex is considered by most Lyme expert doctors to have the most accurate and sensitive Babesia tests .

https://igenex.com/disease/babesia/

“Principle
ImmunoBlotting is a form of IgM and IgG testing that uses multiple pure, recombinant proteins sprayed in precise amounts at specific positions on the test strips to dramatically increase accuracy. It has long been considered the gold standard in infectious disease testing for superior sensitivity and specificity. These tests effectively replace traditional tests such as ELISA and the western blot.

Until recently, diagnostic tests for Babesia have been grossly imprecise and have not been able to detect many of the ever-growing lists of species and strains. The IGeneX ImmunoBlots testing overcomes these obstacles with the ability to detect antibodies to multiple species of Babesia, including B. microti and B. duncani.

Advantages

• Uses specifically created recombinant proteins and not proteins from cultures
• Unlike IFA, can detect multiple species in one test
• Detects the full spectrum of disease: early, active and late-stage
• Detects Babesia genus and speciates to B. microti and B. duncani
• Avoids the error prone process of visualizing slides through a microscope”

New PCR test avail from Igenex