Co-infection of Chronic Lyme Disease Ehrlichiosis May Bring About Cancers

Co-infection of Chronic Lyme Disease Ehrlichiosis May Bring About Cancers

Patients who actually suffer from chronic Ehrlichiosis are often misdiagnosed as having autoimmune disorders or other chronic disease with similar symptomologies, as Ehrlichiosis is generally not tested for. Symptoms typically associated with this infection are a high fever, headache, chills, as well as muscular aches and pains. These closely mimic those often linked to other tick-borne diseases.

Ehrlichiosis Essentials
Ehrlichiosis comes in two specific forms including Human Monocytic Ehrlichiosis (HME) and Human Granulocytic Ehrlichiosis (HGE) and commonly originate from the bite of different ticks. The Lone Star tick (Amblyomma Americanum) bite is a likely carrier of HME, while HGE has been linked to the bites of both the Deer tick (Ixodes Scapularis) and the Western blacklegged tick (Ixodes Pacificus.) The dog tick (Dermacentor Variabilis) is known to transmit both HME and HGE. Ticks that carry Ehrlichiosis are also known to carry and transmit Lyme disease as well. For this reason, patients with Ehrlichiosis should also be tested for Lyme as well.

Can Ehrlichiosis be Passed in Blood Transfusion? Yes!

With the unending demand for blood in the medical community, it is not surprising that the time to test donations/ supplies for Ehrlichiosis or other tick borne infections is passed over. Rather the supplies are tested for hepatitis and HIV but beyond that, no much else. In parts of the Northeast, it is suspected that Lyme and many of its coinfections are found in great numbers in blood donors and as a result, transfusion supplies.

Ehrlichiosis The Central Nervous System Invader

In routine central nervous system (CNS) radiological studies, analyses of cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) samples are seldom pursued. Typically, such tests are prompted only when primary care physicians detect specific symptoms or signs that tip the need for more information. In such circumstance when CSF samples were examined (in 15 of 57 patients,) 8 of the 15 were found abnormal. The most common abnormalities found among the abnormal 15 percent were lymphocytic pleocytosis and elevated protein levels.

Ehrlichiosis - undetected Infection with ties to Cancer

There are four bacteria known to survive and propagate within human neutrophils and their bone marrow origins - Ehrlichiosis is one of them.This tick-transmitted rickettsial pathogen, anaplasma phagocytophilum, is a causative agent of human granulocytic anaplasmosis and is found in the direct family line of Ehrlichiosis. About 70 percent of all white blood cells are neutrophils cells considered to be unsuitable hosts by intracellular bacteria as they are short-lived and serve as primary defense cells, armed with significant antimicrobial apparatus. A. phagocytophilum infection can alter neutrophil functions and result in clinical disease. Moreover, this infection can inhibit or retard apoptosis, oxidative burst, and phagocytosis, while activating degranulation and cytokine/chemokine production often leading to cancer. At this time it is impossible to say how many infections are cancer causatives, but this one certainly seems to have a link suggesting that leukemia and other lymphatic cancers are catalyzed by epigenetic shifts resultant of Ehrlichiosis.
Choi KS, Grab DJ, Dumler JS (2004) Anaplasma phagocytophilum infection induces protracted neutrophil degranulation. Infect Immun 72: 36803683.

Ehrlichiosis and Immuno-compromised Patients: Recipe for Disaster

The zoonotic illness Ehrlichiosis is caused by Ehrlichia species - bacteria that are decidedly pleomorphic, intracellular, rickettsia-like organisms.[2-4] Ehrlichia present a clinical spectrum, or symptomology that can vary from a mild, influenza-like illness, to a fulminant sepsis syndrome. Typically, we find that Ehrlichiosis is self-limiting and not fatal with death rates in large, unselected series ranging from 1 to 8 percent [3,6-8] -

contrasting sharply with the high death rate of patients suffering with the disease who were already immunocompromised.
Emerging Infectious Diseases. 2002;8(3) 2002 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)

The Central Nervous System Invader, Ehrlichiosis

Neurologic manifestations effect up to 20 percent of Ehrlichiosis patients who can suffer with a spectrum of symptoms including everything from confusion to frank meningitis. In one recent case, a patient dealt with persistent obundation and delirium even after fever has dissipated post-doxycycline administration. Ehrlichia should be considered in the event that headache and confusion come with pancytopenia and transaminase elevation - particularly if the patient has had potential tick exposures. It should not be surprising that an Ehrlichiosis diagnosis is often because of its nonspecific clinical and laboratory manifestations. Among patients who were previously immunocompromised, diagnosis can be further delayed because the search for opportunistic infections may further obscure the recognition that Ehrlichia is present. Empiric antimicrobial regimens that are often administered for suspected cryptogenic bacterial and fungal sepsis to immunocompromised subjects rarely include drugs effective against Ehrlichia.
Emerging Infectious Diseases. 2002;8(3) 2002 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)

Diagnosing Ehrlichiosis
For any patient with potential tick exposure in an endemic area who is suffering with fever, transaminase elevations, new-onset thrombocytopenia, or leucopenia, an Ehrlichiosis diagnosis should be considered. For those who could be categorized as immunocompromised, the clinical manifestations are far more severe and can include neurologic deterioration, multiorgan failure, and even a TTP-like illness. Moreover, the doxycycline therapy response could be delayed. The use of PCR for confirmatory diagnosis and early empiric therapy can be life-saving.
Emerging Infectious Diseases. 2002;8(3) 2002 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)

The Immune System Holds the Key

Without question, a hosts best defense against rickettsial infection is its cellular immunity. Ehrlichia clearance from peripheral blood in patients with HGE comes from elevated levels of interferon gamma. A mouse model of Ehrliciosis showed that immunocompromised mice suffer with persistent infection with most eventually succumbing to the disease. Cellular immunity, whether begotten of immunosuppressive

therapies or underlying disease, can compromise recovery and result in more severe disease and oftentimes death.
Emerging Infectious Diseases. 2002;8(3) 2002 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)

Envita Medical Centers

Ehrlichia often plays a role in the Lyme disease Complex of infections. In order to deal with their diagnosis effectively, patients must be shown the scope of their disease including all present infections, toxins, and heavy metals. When chronic Ehrlichia presents, treatments for patients must incorporate far higher doses of antibiotics than typically prescribed; something that Envita takes great care to administer. We invite those interested in state-of-the-art treatment to contact Envita Medical Centers - a world leader in Lyme disease treatment.