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Can you take Malarone with Doxy/Zith

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Posted 8/8/2019 8:10 AM (GMT -5)
So I finished up 4.5 months on Malarone and Zith after a positive MDL test in Feb for babesia Microti igN antibodies. My last test in Early May showed no more IgM antibodies but I finished out the treatment to be longer than the lifespan of an RBC as as standard for Babesia treatment. My last dost was 7/25. I then moved to attempting Bart treatment but have just been feeling steadily worse. The Bactrim/Doxy combo last 4.5 days before I had to quit due to Bactrin side effects, and now after 3 days off I’m doing Doxy and Azithromycin as of Monday 8/5. I am scheduled to get Igenix testing on Monday and am waiting for a call back to go in for an appt for MDL testing from my other Doc.

I felt 95% normal on the Malarone/Zith and now the slide backwards (which I don’t think are a Bart Herx since I’m not sure I have it, but I’m just guessing) has me quite discouraged. I’m anxious, I have some dizziness, fatigue, head pressure and neck stiffness, and my feet have become cold in the past 2 days. I have only been doing doxy 100mg BID but am planning to up it to 200 starting today. The symptoms remind me of how I felt back in Jan/Feb when I thought it was Bart but it was surprisingly Babs that I tested for.

I figured doing the 4.5 months should eradicate it, and my last test didn’t pick up anything, but now that I’m off Malarone I am wondering if the babesia somehow survived. Can I add Malarone to my doxy/Zith protocol? The Drug to drug interaction checker doesn’t have any interactions, it just lists doxy and Malarone as therapeutic duplication since they consider them both antimalarials. I plan to ask my LLMD about it but just wondering if anyone here has done it. Thanks!
Posted 8/8/2019 8:55 AM (GMT -5)
I was on malarone/zith at one point. The 2018 in vitro babesia study seemed to show that common protocols for babesia (duncani is the strain they were looking at) were rather ineffective https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30463941 Given that constellation of symptoms, babesia's obstinacy, possible you are still dealing with some level of babesia load.

I've been thru a lot of treatments. It's only starting to get used for these infections and no one has clear answers on it, but I for one can say disulfiram has torched my babesia... when a lot of other antiprotozoals just couldn't touch the remaining load anymore. I also found coartem to be quite effective, up to a point. But disulfiram might be a promising angle for the tougher babesia cases, over time we'll get some clearer answers on most effective therapies for babesia. Current paradigm is often inadequate for the tougher, more entrenched cases.
Posted 8/8/2019 6:31 PM (GMT -5)
Malarone and Zith worked great for me, I was leading a normal life and only had 2 instances of symptoms in the past month. I only stopped because the plan was to do 4.5 months for babesia then do a Bart protocol as a precaution. I am also trying to determine if I even need a Bart protocol and it’s just babesia that’s causing my symptoms - in which case I’ll resume Malarone and discontinue doxy. It really sucks to go from basically normal to feeling terrible in 1-2 weeks. Just taking doxy/Zith this week has me down for the count and I don’t know if it’s because it’s a Herx or if it’s just babesia flaring now that Malarone has stopped.
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