Bartonella ...vector borne disease in animals and humans - Page 1

Link to a discussion of bartonella which is another vector-borne disease of small animals and humans .. similar to some of the tick borne diseases but has more known hosts including fleas and biting flies.  More difficult to diagnose and treat than RMSF or Lyme .. misdiagnosis and treatment for Lyme is not effective for bartonella.

Link to the website and audio tapes

http://www.peoplespharmacy.com/2013/06/15/907-ticks-fleas-mystery-disease/

Link to the full written scientific publication

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3358077/

Testing for bartonella is both difficult and unreliable requiring multiple tools and specimens to confirm bartonella infection.  Most doctors or veterinarians won't have a clue how to test for bartonella or treat it. 

Erythromycin and doxycycline have been used successfully for standard Bartonella, but medical experts suspects that vector-borne Bartonella is different and recommends levofloxacin or, for children under 18, azithromycin.  Six months to nine months of high dose bacteriostatic antibiotic therapy is needed to clear the organism.  Normal Lyme antibiotic treatments may make bartonella worse as bartonella requires extreme long term antibiotic regimens. It is not known or clear if patients return to "normal" after successful treatment as the immune system plays a role in the symptoms and disease presentation which bartonella causes and is not consistent from patient to different patient.