Ecoclimber
Senior Member
- Messages
- 1,011
Hmm, this is rather interesting....
This is the first installment of a three-part series on Bartonella, bacteria that is being linked to a wide variety of ailments – many of them chronic, and some of them life-threatening. In part one, I’ll talk about what Bartonella is, and its growing recognition as a potentially very serious infectious disease. Part two will cover the wide array of transmission vectors and illnesses associated with the bacteria, and part three will review the current state of the research and recommendations for the future.
Finding it in potentially infected humans, however, takes a bit more specialized testing. Breitschwerdt had to develop a specialized growth media in order to be able to culture the bacteria in numbers great enough to detect using a standard PCR test.
Once Breitschwerdt and other researchers had the proper tools to look for evidence of the bacteria they found that Bartonella is literally all around us.
A lot of the research presented dealt with the main issue that confronted Ed Breitschwerdt when he first began looking closely at Bartonella – the stealthy nature of the pathogen and its ability to conceal itself within the human body, even while causing repeated illnesses.
Dr. Lesley Ann Fein, a rheumatologist who attended the conference, offered a very nice summary of both the conference and its implications for future research:
“Bartonella bacteria are highly evolved, survive in multiple insect vectors and in dessicated flea feces, and enter our bodies in a stealth-like manner, switching off our immune response as it takes residence in our tissues.
“It persists despite aggressive treatment and is clearly a contender for diseases transmitted by blood transfusions. Physicians must be cognizant of the stealth nature of this pathogen and the alarmingly high frequency of seronegativity.”
Ed Breitschwerdt agrees. “We need to understand more about the way this bacteria functions in the human body – how and why it is so successful at hiding and causing persistent infections. We also need to get the word out to the medical community about this pathogen. Just knowing what to look for may end up giving patients with unexplained chronic illnesses better treatment options.
http://web.ncsu.edu/abstract/science/bartonella-epidemic/
http://web.ncsu.edu/abstract/science/bartonella-2/
http://web.ncsu.edu/abstract/science/bartonella-3/
Eco
This is the first installment of a three-part series on Bartonella, bacteria that is being linked to a wide variety of ailments – many of them chronic, and some of them life-threatening. In part one, I’ll talk about what Bartonella is, and its growing recognition as a potentially very serious infectious disease. Part two will cover the wide array of transmission vectors and illnesses associated with the bacteria, and part three will review the current state of the research and recommendations for the future.
Finding it in potentially infected humans, however, takes a bit more specialized testing. Breitschwerdt had to develop a specialized growth media in order to be able to culture the bacteria in numbers great enough to detect using a standard PCR test.
Once Breitschwerdt and other researchers had the proper tools to look for evidence of the bacteria they found that Bartonella is literally all around us.
A lot of the research presented dealt with the main issue that confronted Ed Breitschwerdt when he first began looking closely at Bartonella – the stealthy nature of the pathogen and its ability to conceal itself within the human body, even while causing repeated illnesses.
Dr. Lesley Ann Fein, a rheumatologist who attended the conference, offered a very nice summary of both the conference and its implications for future research:
“Bartonella bacteria are highly evolved, survive in multiple insect vectors and in dessicated flea feces, and enter our bodies in a stealth-like manner, switching off our immune response as it takes residence in our tissues.
“It persists despite aggressive treatment and is clearly a contender for diseases transmitted by blood transfusions. Physicians must be cognizant of the stealth nature of this pathogen and the alarmingly high frequency of seronegativity.”
Ed Breitschwerdt agrees. “We need to understand more about the way this bacteria functions in the human body – how and why it is so successful at hiding and causing persistent infections. We also need to get the word out to the medical community about this pathogen. Just knowing what to look for may end up giving patients with unexplained chronic illnesses better treatment options.
http://web.ncsu.edu/abstract/science/bartonella-epidemic/
http://web.ncsu.edu/abstract/science/bartonella-2/
http://web.ncsu.edu/abstract/science/bartonella-3/
Eco
