Mycoplasma pneumoniae carrier?

[mommybee]

I wonder if someone can enlighten me. I had some blood work done to see if I might be a strep/mycoplasma p carrier and was found to have elevated ASO, ADB and myco p IgG and IgM. I am not sick but the doctor put me on a month Azithromycin anyway because he thought that I might be a carrier. After taking the course of abx I was retested and my strep titers came back normal but my IgM was still 1200 and my IgG was greater than 5. Can someone please help me to understand what this means and how it might be affecting my pandas child. Thanks in advance.

[jtp]

When my son was first diagnosed the whole family was tested for strep/myco. My DS and I both had elevated titers for myco and normal titers for strep. The rest of the family did not. My myco infection was active even though I wasn't sick so I was treated first with Azith(my stomach couldn't take it) switched to Biaxin. Biaxin didn't touch the myco.Finally took Minocin which killed the active infection. My guess is the carriers need to be treated so as to no re-infect anyone. I know that my DS myco antibodies were very high for a very long time and now have come down since he and I were treated, but he is still on Azithromycin at this time.

 

I hope this helps.

[peglem]

I believe elevated IgM is a current, active infection. MycoP is the one that causes "walking pneumonia", so you wouldn't necessarily have identifiable symptoms.

[norcalmom]

Chronic mycoP usually take months of doxycycline or minocycline to get rid of. (sorry to be bearer of bad news).

 

And, I don't know for those induvidual that have it, once gone how easilty they can get it again. Its kinda everywhere...most people get it and recover without antibiotics. So additional immune supoort (in the form of what is the question- the usual is what we do, Vit d, fish oil, multis, occasionally some other immune support sups). So you don't become chronic next time you are exposed. Good luck.

 

BTW - your IGM can go down, and IgG stay hi or go higher - that means you still have an active infection. You should retest until you see your IgG going down. But, with out question, IgM means still active.

[mommybee]

Thanks you all for the well thought out responses. I am so confused. We just got back the results of the most recent blood work for my son and learned that his IgG and IgM are completely normal. This makes me thing that he isn't having a problem with myco p. Obviously he may be protected by the meds he takes, but I'm wondering whether there's any need for me to knock it out of my system since I'm not symptomatic at all and it doesn't seem to be affecting him. If I'm not symptomatic and he's not being affected by my immune response, is there rally any great urgency for me to be treated? I'd welcome your thoughts on this.

[Dedee]

Yes, you should start treatment as soon as possible. Mycoplasma is a stealth pathogen and can invade different body systems. Once it has invaded those cells it becomes very difficult to treat. My daughter evidently had it for years and then it was "activated" when she recieved the flu mist. That is when she became extremely ill. We have been fighting it for two years now and while her titers are beginnning to drop she is still positive. Many physicians under estimate the seriousness of myco p. and it goes under treated or not treated until the immune system is severly compromised. You need to be treated by someone who REALLY understands myco p before the rest of your family ends up positive as well. JMHO.

 

Dedee

[nicklemama]

You need to knock it out. It can reek all kinds of havoc on your body. It is a known cause of rheumatoid arthritis which I have had for 15 yrs. found out in Oct 2011 that I have chronically high mycoplasma IgG titers. Started treating it with azithromycin and minocycline. 15 months later I still have high titers. That said, I no longer take RA meds. The abx is keeping my RA symptoms at bay. Who would have thought?

[mommybee]

Thanks for all your thoughts. I took a course of Azrithromycin (30 days) which brought my strep titers into check (normal ASO and only slightly elevated ADB) but did nothing to reduce mycoplasma p IgG or IgM. I then did 30 days of Claramycin and 30 days of Minocin to no avail. Any thoughts? My child's mycoplasma p titers are high normal, his ASO is negative and his ADB, though high (750) is falling.

 

I'd love advice.

[EmilyK]

What about Biaxin, Doxy, or Cipro? Those are in our Myco-p arsenal.

[nicklemama]

You absolutely need to knock the myco P out. It's hard to get rid of. I've been taking minocycline for nearly two years now and my myco P IgG is still high. I have rheumatoid arthritis related to mycoP.

[mommybee]

Thanks for the responses Nicklemama and Emily. I've forgot to mention that I took a month of Biaxin, so I've actually been on one abx or another since December. Cipro is out. I was also put on Levaquin (same class as Cipro) and had the bad joint reaction. So that family of abs is out forever more.

 

The odd thing is I'm competely asymptomatic-- completely healthy. The only reason why my titers were checked was because my kid's PANDAS. Weirdly, his Myco P has either been in the equivocal or normal range. In over a year, he's never had a positive result. Of course the Azrithromycin he takes may be a prophylactic, but I have to assume that Myco P isn't causing his PANDAS since his ADB has been positive throughout the same time period.

 

I guess my question is whether there is such a thing as a Myco P carrier. I have to guess that most healthy people don't check their Myco P titers so there well could be lots of folks walking around with high readings who don't know it. My GP was completely unfazed.

 

So what's the verdict? Are high titers a problem absent symptoms and if so, is it a big enough deal to need treatment?