Bartonella is an infection that may cause a rash, enlarged lymph node(s), and malaise and fatigue that resolve over several weeks.[1,2] Many animals and insects carry this infection. Bartonella has multiple vectors and infection sources including fleas, flea feces, cat licks or scratches, ticks, lice, and biting flies.[3-6] Young stray kittens are often able to infect humans due to flea feces on their paws, or through cat scratches, bites, or licks.[7-10]
Bartonella is found in cities, suburbs, and rural locations,[11-14] and is an emerging infection. In recent decades, Bartonella research publications are increasing, but psychiatric disorders were underreported in the soldiers of World War I and World War II. For example, approximately 1 million soldiers in WWI were affected with Bartonella quintana,[15] but medical journals did not report much about its psychiatric manifestations.
In the last 15 years, 9 Bartonella bacteria have been identified that are known to infect humans: B henselae, B elizabethae, B grahamii, B vinsonii subsp. arupensis, B vinsonii subsp. berkhoffii, B grahamii, B washoensis, and, more recently, B koehlerae and B rochalimae.[16-20] Currently, the largest national laboratories offer tests for only 2 species[21-23] (B quintana and B henselae).
Some Bartonella cases have “atypical” presentations with signs or symptoms lasting more than weeks, causing diverse medical problems. For example, Bartonella can cause vision abnormalities, prolonged fever, joint pain, lung inflammation, respiratory disease, and granulomas throughout the body. It can occasionally cause abdominal pain, liver and spleen tissue abnormalities, thrombocytopenic purpura, bone infection, papules or pustules, maculopapular rashes, arthritis, abscesses,[20, 24-30] heart tissue and heart valve problems,[31-37] and neurologic illnesses.[38-42]
Traditionally, cognitive neurology has been related to some psychiatric illnesses. A search of PubMed with “Bartonella ” and the search words “depression,” “mania,” “bipolar,” “major depression,” “depression,” “anxiety,” “panic,” “panic attack,” “psychosis,” and “schizophrenia” yielded the limited journal results below:
•Depression
•Dementia
•Encephalopathy-inflamed brain
•Violent behavior
•Confusion
•Combative behavior
•Substance abuse disorders
If you have many of the above mentioned symptoms, and no one can tell you “why” you dont feel good, it may be time to get a blood test to check for any tick or flea born type illnesses.
great post as usual!
Good post and this fill someone in on helped me alot in my college assignement. Say thank you you as your information.
is it possible that some of combat fatigue was due to bartonella???
Good lucy with blood tests. Mine came back negative. But I had/have chills, low grade fever, rashes, itching, psychological disturbances and just about everything else for over 3 years now. I am finally making progress taking the nutramedix Cowden protocol. Ironically, I had taken IV antibiotics for over 7 months and still had symptoms. After a while I just stopped herxing. Last month I started Cowden and I am herding right and left and weird stuff too. I just got three strange itchy horizontal itchy stretch mark like marks across my chest tonight with chills and ear ringing. Must be because I am “cured of disease.” Don’t encourage people to rely on blood tests. None of my tests came back “positive”…though they did come back in determinant. If your immune suppressed, you are not going to have antibodies floating around because the bacteria can be pretty smart about being evasive. If you have all these weird symptoms, odds are you are sick, test or no. I was sick for so long without treatment because my tests came back negative. I developed a really slow heart beat (35 bpm). I am so thankful we did research and found out ways to treat. Blood tests ARE NOT reliable!!!!!!!!