Bartonella, Babesia And Lyme or Borrelia in Infants—Crossing Into Human Fetuses?
Flea and Tick Bites Pregnancy, Infants and Possible Birth Defects
A researcher has discovered that bacteria transmitted by fleas–and potentially ticks–can be passed to human babies by the mother, causing chronic infections and raising the possibility of bacterially induced birth defects.
Dr. Breitschwerdt, professor of internal medicine in the Department of Clinical Sciences and director of the CVM Intracellular Pathogens Research Laboratory, is among the world's leading experts on Bartonella, a bacteria that is maintained in nature by fleas, ticks and a vast range of other insects, reminds us it can be transmitted by infected cats and dogs as well.
The most commonly known basic Bartonella-related illness is cat scratch disease, caused by B. henselae, a strain of Bartonella that can be carried in a cat's blood for years. Cat scratch disease is now known correctly to be chronic, and is found in cats (B. henselae) and dogs (B. vinsonii subsp. berkhoffii) after infection fleas, ticks and many other insects.
Dr. Breitschwerdt's group in the Center for Comparative Medicine and Translational Research, tested blood and tissue samples taken over a period of years from a mother, father and son who had suffered chronic illnesses for over a decade. Autopsy samples from their daughter–the son's twin who died shortly after birth–contained DNA evidence of Bartonella henselae and Bartonella vinsonii subsp. berkhoffi infection, which was also found in the other members of the family.
Both parents had suffered recurring neurological symptoms including headaches and memory loss, as well as shortness of breath, muscle weakness and fatigue before the children were born. In addition, their 10-year-old son was chronically ill from birth and their daughter died due to a heart defect at nine days of age.
Results of the parents' medical histories and the microbiological tests indicated that the parents had been exposed to Bartonella prior to the birth of the twins, and finding the same bacteria in both children, one shortly after birth and the other 10 years later, indicates that they may have become infected while in utero.
Dr. Breitschwerdt's research appears online in the Journal of Clinical Microbiology.
"This is yet more evidence that Bartonella bacteria cause chronic intravascular infections in people with otherwise normal immune systems, infections that can span a decade or more," Dr. Breitschwerdt says. "Also this new evidence supports the potential of trans-placental infection and raises the possibility that maternal infection with these bacteria might also cause birth defects."
Dr. Breitschwerdt is also an adjunct professor of medicine at Duke University Medical Center.
The abstract is "Molecular evidence of perinatal transmission of Bartonella vinsonii subsp. berkhoffii and B.henselae to a child". April 14, 2010 in Journal of Clinical Microbiology
Bartonella vinsonii subsp. berkhoffii, Bartonella henselae or DNA of both organisms was amplified and sequenced from blood, enrichment blood cultures or autopsy tissues from four family members. Historical and microbiological results support perinatal transmission of Bartonella species in this family.
Aust Vet J. 1987 Feb;64(2):63.
Bovine abortion due to prenatal Babesia bovis infection.
Trueman KF, McLennan MW.
Emerg Infect Dis. 2012 Aug;18(8):1318-21. doi: 10.3201/eid1808.110988.
Emerg Infect Dis. 2012 Aug;18(8):1318-21.
Vertical Transmission of Babesia microti, United States.
Joseph JT, Purtill K, Wong SJ, Munoz J, Teal A, Madison-Antenucci S, Horowitz HW, Aguero-Rosenfeld ME, Moore JM, Abramowsky C, Wormser GP.
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 of Babesia spp. antibodies in the heel-stick blood sample and confirmed by detection of Babesia spp. DNA in placenta tissue.
What do you do after the third author in these papers? Some writers drop all authors after the first three.
Gynecol Obstet Invest. 1996;41(4):240-3.
Confirmation of Borrelia burgdorferi spirochetes by polymerase chain reaction in placentas of women with reactive serology for Lyme antibodies.
Figueroa R, Bracero LA, Aguero-Rosenfeld M, Beneck D, Coleman J, Schwartz I.
Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, New York Medical College, Westchester County Medical Center, Valhalla, USA.
The purpose of our study was to determine whether Borrelia burgdorferi spirochetes were present in placentas of asymptomatic women with reactive Lyme serology using a silver stain, and to confirm the identity of the spirochetes by polymerase chain reaction (PCR). Sixty placentas of asymptomatic women with ELISA-positive or-equivocal serology for Lyme antibodies during pregnancy were examined for spirochetes using a silver stain. The results of the ELISA serology were confirmed by Western blot analysis. PCR amplification for B. burgdorferi was performed on placentas identified to have spirochetes and on a group of placentas negative for spirochetes. Spirochetes were identified by silver staining in 3 (5%) of the 60 placentas. PCR confirmed B. burgdorferi nucleotide sequences in 2 of the placentas. The 5 women had equivocal Lyme ELISA and negative syphilis serology. The results of the Western blot analysis were negative in 2 cases and indeterminate in 1 case. Six controls were negative for spirochetes by silver staining and PCR. A normal perinatal outcome was observed in all cases. Spirochetes identified in placental tissue of pregnancies with reactive Lyme serology were confirmed by PCR to be B. burgdorferi. There was no relationship between the presence of placental spirochetes and the results of Lyme serology or the pregnancy outcome.
[THIS WAS DONE IN 1996 SO THE AUTHORS SHOULD BE GIVEN THE BENEFIT OF THE DOUBT.]
BUT IT IS A JUMP OFF POINT FOR SOME COMMENTS.
DR. SCHALLER WONDERS HOW AUTHORS RULE OUT ALL THE OTHER MANY TICK INFECTIONS IN MANY LOCATIONS WITH IMMENSE TICK INFECTIONS SUCH AS BARTONELLA THAT HAS VERY POOR TESTS PER THE AUTHOR OF 300 PAPERS--THE AUTHOR OF THE FIRST ARTICLE ABOVE-DR EB.
DR EB DID NOT SET UP A LAB BECAUSE HE THOUGHT THE BARTONELLA TESTING WAS SO GREAT. HE SET UP A LAB BECAUSE BARTONELLA ROUTINE TESTING IS JUNK--IN HIS OPINION. AND IF YOU ARE AN INFECTION SOCIETY, AND DO NOT HAVE IT IN YOUR TICK 2012 GUIDELINES YOU ARE VIRTUALLY USELESS. IT IS IMMUNO-SUPPRESIVE AND IF ONE REALLY READS, IT IS CLEAR IT HARMS EVERY TISSUE 20 WAYS.
CURIOUSLY, A MASSIVE INFECTION TEXTBOOK HAS DROPPED ITS SPIROCHETE SECTION WITH LYME OR BORRELIA INFECTIONS IN PREGNANCY FROM A HUGE NUMBER OF PAGES AND REFERENCES TO A MERE 12 PAGES—THIS IS LIKE SS NAZI BOOK BURNING AND IS CORRUPT SCIENCE AND ANTI-SCIENCE.
Rheum Dis Clin North Am. 1989 Nov;15(4):657-77.
Gestational Lyme borreliosis. Implications for the fetus.
Southampton Hospital, New York.
Great diversity of clinical expression of signs and symptoms of gestational Lyme borreliosis parallels the diversity of prenatal syphilis. It is documented that transplacental transmission of the spirochete from mother to fetus is possible. Further research is necessary to investigate possible teratogenic effects that might occur if the spirochete reaches the fetus during the period of organogenesis. Autopsy and clinical studies have associated gestational Lyme borreliosis with various medical problems including fetal death, hydrocephalus, cardiovascular anomalies, neonatal respiratory distress, hyperbilirubinemia, intrauterine growth retardation, cortical blindness, sudden infant death syndrome, and maternal toxemia of pregnancy. Whether any or all of these associations are coincidentally or causally related remains to be clarified by further investigation. It is my expectation that the spectrum of gestational Lyme borreliosis will expand into many of the clinical domains of prenatal syphilis.
J Reprod Med. 1989 Dec;34(12):975-6.
Bacterial infection and human fetal wastage.
Lessing JB, Amster R, Berger SA, Peyser MR.
Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, A Tel Aviv Medical Center, Israel.
Twenty-eight of 57 fetuses delivered after intrauterine death were found to have a variety of aerobic and facultative bacteria in the heart, anus, placenta, brain and cerebrospinal fluid. Subclinical maternal bacteremia, possibly originating in the urinary tract, appears to be a common cause of second- and third-trimester fetal demise.
Pediatr Pathol. 1991 Nov-Dec;11(6):827-38.
Nonsyphilitic spirochetosis in second-trimester fetuses.
Abramowsky C, Beyer-Patterson P, Cortinas E.
Department of Pathology, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas 75235.
Four female fetuses (17-23 weeks) spontaneously aborted by young women (15-19 years old) showed spirochetal microorganisms predominantly in the intestinal lumen and mucosa and to a much lesser extent in other organs. Fetal tissues showed a brisk lymphocytic-plasmacytic response in intestinal mucosa, lungs, and meninges in some cases. In all instances the placenta had chorioamnionitis and severe chronic villitis, with villous vasculitis in some. One fetus had a concomitant cytomegalovirus infection. The observed lesions were reminiscent of Treponema pallidum infections; however, the spirochetes were morphologically different by light and ultrastructural microscopy from T. pallidum and did not react with a silver-enhanced, gold-labeled anti-T. pallidum antibody. In addition, serologic tests for syphilis of the women before or after the abortions were nonreactive. On the basis of clinical pathologic considerations as well as the absence of immunostaining, it is possible also to rule out infections caused by Lyme and relapsing fever Borrelia, Leptospira, and Campylobacter. The spirochetes' prominent tropism for the intestinal tract raises the possibility of a congenital infection with gastrointestinal spirochetal species described in recent years. The placental findings suggest an ascending transamniotic infection, with initial colonization of the intestinal tract and systemic dissemination of the organisms in the fetus and placental villi.
DR. SCHALLER DOES NOT SUPPORT NOR OPPOSE THE INFORMATION ABOVE. HE IS A SUPPORTER OF FREE AND LIBERAL SCIENTIFIC THOUGHT.