An article in Medical Press, which reports on developments in medical research, discussed early-stage findings published in the journal Pathogens indicating that nearly half of patients with chronic fatigue tested positive for Bartonella or Babesia infections.
Babesia and Bartonella are often suspected as co-infections with Lyme disease which, as discussed in previous ME Research UK articles, is caused by the bacteria Borrelia burgdorferi, transmitted through the bite of an infected tick.
In the research paper, the authors highlight the overlap in symptoms between ME/CFS and in people infected with Babesia or Bartonella species.
Notably:
- ME/CFS is “characterised by extreme fatigue lasting at least six months”.
- “Based on case reports, patients infected with Babesia or Bartonella species have reported a history of chronic fatigue accompanied by neurological symptoms”.
From this, the team go onto explain that their small study aimed to determine how often DNA from Babesia and Bartonella could be detected in a cohort of research participants who had a history of fatigue lasting at least six months.
While results showed that 23/50 (46%) of these individuals tested positive, it is essential to note that it was not specified whether these participants met diagnostic criteria for ME/CFS. Before conclusions can be drawn about the association between Babesia and Bartonella, and ME/CFS, more research would be needed using ME/CFS criteria that requires the presence of post exertional malaise (PEM) for a diagnosis).
Additionally, this study recruited participants from another project which aimed to look at the detection of Bartonella species in the blood of people with extensive animal contact. As Bartonella often transmitted to animals and humans via ticks, fleas, and lice – a population of people who have “extensive animal contact” are likely to be higher risk of exposure to Babesia and Bartonella than the general population. This means that more research would be needed to assess whether the rate of infection seen in this study would be the same as people with ME/CFS from the general population.
