Artemisinin

How bad of a Herx does this cause? I am only taking one a day right now. I am on the thirid day and all of a sudden i feel like crap.

I feel weak and my body hurts. Could this be a Herx from the Artemisinin and if so how long will it last. I am also on Bactrim and Cedax and of course probotics. I was feeling so much better until I started the Artemisinin. I hate feeling like this. Please give any input you can on this med. Thanks,

Maria

From my personal experience with artmenisin, mepron or malarone. The babesia type herx usually presents itself on day 3 or 4 after you start one of those meds. You can give artmenisin to a healthy person and they wouldn't feel anything. Did you also see an increase in night sweats on night #3 or 4?

The fatigue and pain will become less and less as time goes on. You should be able to increase the dose of artmensisin within the next week or two. Bactrim is a good addition to your treatment also. I wouldn't really worry at all, artmenisin is a rather safe herb. They do advise to have your liver enzymes checked periodically while on artmenisin, i'd say like every 4 weeks would be smart. But then again, you haven't even made it to the normal dosage or beyond. hang in there.

Malarone is a little more aggressive than artmenisin. But both do produce a similar herx if you do have babesia. Do you have a positive test result for babesia? Just to give you an idea. I did artmenisin back in the day and i took 6-8 pills of allergy research super artemenisin per day. They were labeled as 180mg artmenisin per pill.

And it is good thing that your dr added bactrim to your babesia treatment protocol. Much fewer relapse rates are seen when bactrim is added. If i had to treat babesia again. I'd do Mepron(malarone substitute), Artmenisin, Biaxin, Bactrim.

Mepron and malarone are pretty much the same. They both contain the active drug atovaquone. However, malarone also has a small amount of proguanil which is also anti-malarial. Malarone is usually prescribed as 1-2 pills per day which would give you a far lower % of atovaquone compared to the higher dose mepron. Which is usually prescribed as several teaspoons per day. Just one teaspoon has more mg of atovaquone than just two pills of malarone. Malarone is more catered to malaria or babesia prevention such as taking it before you visit a malaria hot spot.

I would go for mepron if your insurance company doesn't complain, it is far more expensive. However, i'd still wait until you are done with the diflucan for now. It would be too complicated for your liver to take so many meds at once. But i'm sure your dr is aware of that.

There are many other antimalarial meds that might also work against babesia if you find your case hard to resolve. I'll list a few. Most of these are not too effective used alone, it usually requires a carefully calculated combination.

Mepron

Malarone

Artmenisin or artesunate(herbal extract)

Riamet

Bactrim(mild effect)

Plaquenil

Chloroquine

quinine

Clindamycin(c-diff risk)

Allinia

Doxycycline(mild effect)

Larium(risky)

alinia

enula(herbal)

Lumefantrine

Roxithromycin(moderate)

Zithromax(mild)

Biaxin(mild)