Biaxin vs. Azithromycin

[Christianmom]

My son has been on augmentin xr, biaxin, omnicef, clindamycin, and now azithromycin. He by far did the best on Biaxin and worse on azithromycin. Doctor said it was unusual to do better on biaxin vs. azithromycin. It seems to me like he should have done well on both since they're both immunomodulators. Has anyone else's child done better on biaxin than azithromycin? Did we perhaps not try the azith. long enough--only 13 days?

 

None of the antibiotics have helped all that much in terms of his OCD, though they have removed his infections--strep and mycoplasma. We are looking into IVIG soon.

[sf_mom]

Yes some kids have done better on Biaxin. Couple of things... Biaxin will cross the BB and azithro will in only small doses so if there is an active infection in the brain its very possible to get a better response from one over the other. 13 days on Azithro would have been too short of a timeframe to tell if its effective or not. Azithro could be causing a herxheimer reaction temporarily making things worse before better. Or its just not as effective as the Biaxin was for your child due to their differences and potential chronic infections. One of the magic antibiotics for our son has been Cedax... it too cross BB and will kill active infection of Lyme in all states (cyst/active form). The Lyme infection can be in the brain. Our son had strep, has congenital lyme and thought to have babesia and bartonella as well.

 

Have you rechecked Mycoplasma titers and have they normalized? Strep titers normalized? Have you ruled out other multiple chronic infections such as Lyme, Babesia, Bartonella, etc? It is very possible that chronic mycoplasma can take months to resolve 9 to 24 months... and rotating, combo'd antibiotics are typically used to treat. Biaxin is often used to treat Lyme/Bartonella.

Edited February 22, 2011 by SF Mom

[Christianmom]

SF Mom--

 

The mycoplasma titer is back to normal and it was never really that high anyway. Originally it was normal and then rose to slightly above normal when my son went on 30 days of prednisone. After more antiobiotics, it is back to normal (actually my son has not gone off of full-dose antibiotics since diagnosed last October). ASO is now normal. Still waiting for the anti-DNase test. Still waiting for Cunningham test results. Western blot has been tested three times--all normal. CBC normal. Celiac normal. Iron normal. Immunoglobulins all normal.

 

How long would you continue on the azithromycin? Dr. T said to switch back to biaxin since my son did better on that.

[sf_mom]

Definitely switch back to Biaxin if your son did better on it. Herx's can take a long time to see improvement with specific antibiotics and would probably need the experience of a good LLMD to guide you through the process. Many have done the standard WB only later to discover Lyme. There is a very high rate of false negatives with the standard WB test. We did not find Lyme until we did provocation and looked for DNA in the urine.

 

Anyway, I think there is a reason your son is doing better on Biaxin and I personally do not believe it is the immune modulating aspects. Biaxin is widely used for Lyme (co-infections) but typically combo'd with another antibiotic... Some have been on it six months or more for Lyme with huge advances. I use Lyme in a general terms that should include co-infections. There are many who have had only strep/bartonella (co-infection TBI)

 

-Wendy

Edited February 22, 2011 by SF Mom

[Joan Pandas Mom]

The LLD we saw today is recommending provocation testing of DS urine. My son had a few + bands and a few IND bands and a CD57 of 27. I know a low CD57 doesn't mean much for children to many LLD's. My son is 16 so I don't know what to think. Mycoplasma can take 9-12 months to heal, WOW. I'm having that retested too. The IgG on mycoplasma was high in March of 2010 and rose slightly over 9 months despite being on abx for then 1 year.

[sf_mom]

Provocation is a good way to go to confirm results. We loaded my husband and son up antibiotics to draw out lyme. Husband was given two antibiotic shots, azithro, doxy and tindamax the following days and we collected urine on day 2, 4, 6.

[Phasmid]

My son did GREAT on biaxin (clarithromycin) but it had a bad after taste (metallic) that my son refused to continue it! So, he's on azithromycin, which is holding him well too. When my son first started the biaxin, he slept alone in his room for the first time in many years- four days after starting the med, and that was in March of 2010.