ILADS Guidelines for treating Lyme disease and co-infections.

"In early 2004, The International Lyme and Associated Diseases Society (ILADS) released the first evidence-based comprehensive set of Lyme Disease Treatment Guidelines to assist physicians, public health officials and organizations involved in the evaluation and treatment of Lyme disease. The Lyme Disease Association (national) and the California Lyme Disease Association endorsed the Guidelines which were then peer-reviewed and made available to professionals and to the public.

Lyme is the number one tick-borne illness in the US. The CDC reports there are 24,000 new cases of Lyme disease in the US but the CDC says that figure could be under reported by tenfold. ILADS believes newly diagnosed cases of Lyme may occur at a rate five times higher than the number of new AIDS cases. Chronic Lyme is reported in up to half of patients treated for Lyme.

ILADS Lyme Treatment Guidelines suggest more aggressive treatment for people at risk."

Sadly, people are not recognizing that this illness is to be found in just about every corner of the world today.  How it got there, is anyone's guess.  But, it is in South Africa and you better believe it !!
Ever had a tick bite and some years later feel that your body is falling apart...  Don't overlook this emerging disease.  Unexplained aches and pain, fatigue, arthritis, loss of memory... the list goes on !
http://www.ilads.org/lyme_disease/treatment_guidelines_summary.html

GUIDELINES:
http://www.ilads.org/lyme_disease/treatment_guidelines.html

Babesia... a co-infection of Lyme disease...

The Babesia parasite is considered to be an emerging infectious disease and is being found more and more in blood samples from countries around the world.  More concerning is a report of congenital Babesiosis.  Although considered a co-infection from a tick bite, it is closely related to the malaria parasite.  It finds its way to the red blood cells and makes itself at home there...  The Babesia parasite will interfere with the process of iron uptake by the red blood cells.  Where there is Babesia more often than not you will find Bartonella lurking.


Some of the symptoms of Babesia to look out for include:

Air hunger, Cough, Fatigue, Fevers, Headache, Imbalance without true vertigo, Mild encephalopathy, Shaking chills, Sweats

For more info on the symptoms you can read this webpage.http://www.anapsid.org/lyme/symptoms/tbi-symptoms.html


Abstract:
http://wwwnc.cdc.gov/eid/article/18/8/11-0988_article.htm

"Babesiosis is usually acquired from a tick bite or through a blood transfusion. We report a case of babesiosis in an infant for whom vertical transmission was suggested by evidence ofBabesia spp. antibodies in the heel-stick blood sample and confirmed by detection of Babesiaspp. DNA in placenta tissue."


" The mother was asymptomatic during and after her pregnancy. The infant was delivered vaginally and full term at 3,430 g without complications. The infant’s mother had visited parks in Westchester and Dutchess Counties in New York during the pregnancy but was unaware of any tick bites. The infant had no known tick exposure, and neither mother nor infant had a history of blood transfusion."

"This case provided convincing evidence for congenital babesiosis because of prepartum infection involving the placenta in the mother. On the basis of experience with congenital malaria, we assume that Babesia spp. parasites cross the placenta during pregnancy or at the time of delivery. In congenital malaria, increasing evidence suggests that the malaria parasites are most often acquired antenatally by transplacental transmission of infected erythrocytes."