Lyme disease has become more well-known in the last decade. Despite increased awareness, there are still a lot of unknowns.
Over the years, I’ve had friends, colleagues, and even strangers reach out to me about my experience with Lyme. It’s a tick-borne illness caused by the bacterium Borrelia burgdorferi. Most people don’t know that a lot of people diagnosed with the disease also have co-infections. There are many different co-infections that can attack with Lyme. A few years after my Lyme diagnosis, my doctor discovered that I also had one of the co-infections called Babesiosis. So, what is it?
Q. What is the difference between Babesiosis and Lyme?
A. Whereas Lyme is caused by the bacteria Borrelia burgdorferi, Babesiosis is caused by the microscopic parasite, Babesia microti, that infects red blood cells. Babesiosis and Lyme both require separate treatments due to the parasitic component of the Babesia bacteria.
Q. What are the typical symptoms of Babesiosis?
A. There is a wide variety of symptoms that someone suffering from Babesiosis can endure. Babesiosis mimics the flu through fever, chills, sweats, headache, body aches, loss of appetite, nausea, and fatigue. Babesiosis also causes intolerance and sensitivity to light, pink eye, abdominal pain, sore throat, weight loss, vision change and damage to the eye, sensory issues, and vomiting. In some cases, since the Babesia parasites infect red blood cells, a patient can also have hemolytic anemia. The bizarre thing about this disease is that symptoms can come and go within minutes. They’re ever changing.
Q. Why did it take so long to figure out you had Babesiosis after you were already diagnosed with Lyme?
A. As you can tell from the above symptoms, they often mimic the flu or are synonymous with typical Lyme symptoms. When I told my doctor about these symptoms, she ordered a blood test. After the blood test, we figured out that the chills, sweats, pink eye (all the time), vision change, sensory issues, and vomiting and most of my other symptoms were caused by Babesiosis.
Q. How do you treat Babesiosis? Is it different than the Lyme treatment?
A. Since Lyme and Babesiosis are caused by different bacteria, Babesiosis needed to be treated more aggressively. Babesiosis is a malaria-like illness so antibiotics used to treat malaria are often used to treat Babesiosis. Mepron (Atovaquone), for example, was part of my treatment.
Q. What Babesiosis symptoms did you have?
A. Babesiosis is one of the most severe co-infections. Luckily, I did not have the most severe symptoms. I had difficulty with certain light and sounds, night sweats, chills, blurred vision, dysautonomia (inflammation in the brain causing memory loss, headaches, disequilibrium, anxiety, brain fog and insomnia), and muscle/joint pain. Babesiosis can also have affect nerves (neuropathy). At times, my feet, arms, or other various parts of my body would get numb.
Babesiosis is a hard disease to diagnose as the symptoms often disguise themselves as something different. The longer a patient goes without treatment, the harder it is to cure. If you have Lyme and also notice any of these symptoms, ask your doctor for a blood test to identify co-infections. For more information on tick-borne illnesses, visit the CDC website.
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