LEIGH68773 said...
Hello all! Just recently diagnosis'd with Neuro Brucelosis. I thought I had lyme and demanded treatment for it even though my titers/western blot was negative. Thank God I did because atleast I was able to get on doxy. My amazing infectious disease doctor dug deeper and found that I was positive for Brucella, a common misdianosis'd as lyme disease. Now treating with bactrim/doxy and rifampin for atleast 6 months. So glad to have a diagnosis to what nearly killed me. Also positive for Myco, but I heard the two go hand and hand. I do also feel it's underreported and people who think they had lyme and can't get better, Brucella is probably their answer.
Wow, way to go LEIGH! I'm glad you have a doc that is willing to dig. That's very unusual for a ID doc! Especially if Lyme is mentioned.
Could you tell us some of your symptoms, your background, and how this almost killed you??? People need to be educated.
I, too, feel that this infection is mis-diagnosed, under-detected, and under-diagnosed much too often! How can we think that Brucellosis is not a problem in the US when it is a very common problem in much of the rest of the world!?
Here are some points on Brucellosis by Stephen Phillips MD taken from last year's ILADS conference:
"-Muscle pain, creaking and cracking, fever, malaise, sweats, arthralgia, back pain, chills, significant weight loss, fatigue, headache, and other symptoms can present with Brucella.
-Elevated CRP, Elevated ESR (sed rate), and anemia may present.
-Lyme disables many from their career; Brucella disables you from every aspect of your life. It is incapacitating.
-Underdiagnosed illness.
-There is a range of symptoms as with many zoonotic infections.
-It is a gram-negative intracellular microbe.
-It becomes the puppet master of the cell. Unpasteurized dairy, animal exposures to body fluids, hunters, and laboratory exposures by aerosolization are common sources of infection.
-Humans are dead end hosts though transplacental, breast milk, and sexual transmission have occurred in the literature.
-12.8% of cases happen in the winter; 78% in spring and summer.
-It has been isolated from ticks and fleas for 60 years.
-Transmission has been demonstrated with lice and blood-sucking insects in nature.
-It is not as hard to culture as Borrelia, but very close.
-It is slow growing; takes weeks for a culture positive with frequent false negatives.
-Bone marrow would be the best culture source.
-PCR is useful but new strains are commonly found.
-Chronic cases are often seronegative.
-ELISA and Agglutination Antibody testing are the most common; complement fixation testing is available in Europe and is better but not available in the US.
-Streptomycin, Gentamicin, Doxycycline, Rifampin, Bactrim, or quinolones may be used.
-It is resistant to Ceftriaxone.
-Earlier treatment results in better outcomes.
-Single agent treatments don't work.
-Treatment less than six weeks results in high failure rates.
-Herxes can be severe or fatal.
-Aminoglycosides may be used for 3 weeks with Doxycycline or Doxycycline and Rifampin for 6 weeks.
-Aminoglycoside and Doxycycline combination is more effective.
-Streptomycin is equivalent to Gentamicin in terms of effectiveness.
-There is no agreed upon curative treatment for chronic Brucellosis.
-It has blebs, L-forms, and biofilms.
-Levamisole is an antiparasitic and immune potentiator.
-Antibiotics plus Levamisole were better than antibiotics alone; though Levamisole can cause autoimmune disease and was taken off the market in 1999.
-Ivermectin may be a good replacement for Levamisole and does potentiate immunity.
-Vitamin C may help.
-Polyporus umbellatus (mushroom) reverses Brucella induced immune anergy and activated macrophages.
-Gamma interferon is the principle cytokine involved in the protective response; no studies have been done.
-In a study with 3 groups of Brucella patients, the first group had Interferon Alpha, second had Levamisole, and third had conventional antibiotics. Groups 1 and 2 had clinical improvement and immune response. Group 1 did better than Group 2. Group 3 had no change.
-Liposomes mimic cell membranes and the immune system sees them as a foreign invader and gobbles them up. This can be used to enhance drug delivery and improve the outcome of some medications. Anionic (negative), Cationic (positive), or neutral.
-Liposomal Gentamicin study eliminated infection from monocytes; was 20 times more effective than free Gentamicin with reduced side effects.
-Would like liposomal aminoglycosides to be available.
-Brucella is related to Bartonella.
-True Brucella infection is not as common as Bartonella.
-Aminoglycosides may be a helpful option for Bartonella."
*Notes taken by Scott Forsgren (betterhealthguy)
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