Hi all,

30y/o male here. Back in December 2019 I started having pain in my lungs and it was hard for me to breathe. I went to my doctor and found that I tested positive for Chlamydia Pneumoniae (Cpn). Doc gave me Azithromycin (Z-Pak) which seemed to help for a bit.

Then a month later, late January, my symptoms came back and were slightly worse. Doc gave me another round of Z-Pak. Seemed to help again until early March when I started to experience lung pain and phlegm 10 times worse than before. I was sleeping on ice packs just to fall asleep. COVID was NOT a thing yet in America so Doc put me on Z-Pak again. Nor was I tested. Symptoms get better then in late May symptoms get worse than ever before. I was coughing up the most mucus I have ever produced in my life. Phlegm filling my lungs. Horrible pain.

Doc tests me for COVID antibodies and I test positive for IgG. Doc thinks current infection is due to the Chlamydia Pneumoniae not COVID. 2 months later I am now on TWO different antibiotics to try and quell the infection. Now when I go off the medication, symptoms come back almost immediately.

Recently I have found studies linking Chlamydia Pneumoniae caused by COVID. See below for an article I found linking fatailty rate with COVID + Chlamydia Pneumoniae. This maybe why Azithromycin is working...

https://www.outlookindia.com/newsscroll/covid19-amp-chlamydia-bacteria-coexistence-a-major-cause-of-fatalities-study/1849803

Has anyone else experienced this and found anything that works?!

My symptoms have been:

No fever

TONS of phlegm

Constant drip in my lungs

Hard to breathe

Pain in my lungs

Horrible fatigue

Horrible brain fog

Current medication:

Hydroxychloroquine

Doxycycline

Azithromycin

NAC

TL/DR: Does anyone else have Chlamydia Pneumoniae & COVID and found anything that is helping?

I have chest pain on the left side along with muscle spasms all around my body and sometimes even shortness of breath, I went through several doctors, my heart is fine, lung x-ray was also fine and indicated no signs of infection/pneumonia/bronchitis. At first doctors thought I was just stressed but after going through even more doctors one of them suggested I should do tests for several illnesses which resulted in a positive test for Chlamydia Pneumoniae IgM and EBV (even though i've had mono before).

What concerns me here is that Chlamidiya Pneum. is know to cause Alzheimer's and other illnesses. What I have was described to me as neurological symptoms along with mild fever and not pneumonia, which in turn raises some questions such as:

What's the possibility that this infection might have damaged my nervous system?

I've had mono before and was told that once you get it sticks forever with you and you are immune to it, however the test I have shows it to be positive, could it be that the mono and chlamydia are there because something else is weakening my immune system?

PS. I've also was told to test for HIV and came out as negative, not long before all of this I was hospitalised for an upper respiratory infection and I've had an on and off infection since march, is it possible that I've had chlamydia under the radar which was treated improperly all this time ?

Thank you for your time and responses.

Hello,
I am a 21 y.o. male student from the Czech Republic that was recently diagnosed with these two infections and I have been prescribed Clarithromycinum. I don't take any other medication besides probiotics and paracetamol (that doesn't seem to help me much anyway). I weight 81,5 kilos and I'm 186cm tall. I don't smoke anymore, I stopped smoking weed 2 weeks ago. I had really bad symptoms before I started to take the antibiotics, like muscle ache, joint cracking, night sweats, fatigue, shaking etc. It's been a week since I started the treatment and some of the symptoms have disappeared or appear only occasionally and don't bother me that much. But I still feel tired all the time and Im also experiencing bad brain fog frequently. The problem is that I have to learn for my uni exams (it's exam peroid here) and these two symptoms cause a lot of frustration for me. I have days when I just can't concentrate at all and sleep most of the day. I'm already pretty behind with my studies for the next exam. Is there anything I can do to get rid of these symptoms and be able to study properly again? Also, is there anything I can do to get rid of the illness faster? Thank you for any answer, I'm really frustrated right now :( (also sorry for my English)

Dear Reddit Doctors, I have a urgent question. A bloodtest discovered that I have clamydia pneumoniae (Chlam. pneu. IgG positif :114 RU/ml). So I looked it up on the internet and found out, that this bacterial infection causes lung infections. Knowing that I'm 23 years old and always having trouble with my lungs, doctors often thought that I have asthma, may this penomena be linked ? May the chlamydia cause those lung-problems ? Furthermore,how can this be curred, do I need to take antibiotics as said on the internet ? Should I start a treatment immediately ? I appreciate every answer that is given.

I was reading some old forum posts of mine -- dating back 6 years or so -- and at the time I was complaining about N-Acetyl-Cysteine (which I was trialing for OCD) inducing flu-like symptoms. It looks like I tried it on 4 separate occasions and had the same reaction each time. Apparently, a flu-like reaction to NAC is uniquely diagnostic of a Cpn infection, though I never looked into the matter further.

However, 6 years later and I'm suffering from pretty debilitating CFS symptoms. I've been checked for Lyme & co (though the tests aren't apparently reliable), Coxsackie, Yersinia .. all were negative. That was through a private doctor I was seeing but can't afford to go to anymore. I asked my own less amenable GP to check me for H. Pylori, which he's arranged, plus a stool analysis, and I also asked to be checked for Cpn but he thought I meant Chlamydia and dismissed the idea.

I've read Cpn is a treatable cause of CFS -- though I don't know if many doctors buy into it as a chronic issue. Is it something I should push to be looked into? It's been kind of heartbreaking pursuing all these leads while deteriorating so rapidly, yet not getting anywhere. The private doctor said I can't really be treated until something is found.

The abnormalities in my general bloodwork are low iron (but normal-ish ferritin, i.e. Anemia of Chronic Disease), low Vit D, low B12, low testosterone, elevated TSH .. but I'm guessing that pattern isn't really unique to any one infection.

I’m just, upset. We found cervical cancer (early) and I needed a hysterectomy so I know all that has held me up but I was really hoping to see some decrease in these viral infections. Anyone else dealing with these too?

Edited to clarify title I have both chlamydia pneumonia and mycoplasma pneumonia and not the STI chlamydia that’s something else entirely

I just switched practices and my new doctor wants to order testing from Infectolab for the following: babesia, bartonella, borellia (Lymespot), chlamydia pneumoniae, mycoplasma pneumoniae.

I've had recent bloodwork on all of those infections from other labs, including Labcorp, MDL, Igenex, and Galaxy. I have been positive for all of them at some point, though am testing negative for a couple now (babesia & borellia/Lyme).

My new doctor mentioned that Infectolab's tests consider T-cells, and suggested it is helpful to have as part of my clinical picture. It's sooo much more money, though! I just spent a heap on the new Galaxy nanotrap test alone :(

Anyone have advice on whether it's worth it vs. redundant to do this testing? (Or if it's helpful to do for some, but not all of the above infections - or say, only those which I'm showing recent pos or neg for?)

The following was posted in the Discord by our friendly neighborhood physician DR.G (on reddit, posts under u/onepennycheaper) around a week ago. I thought it was a great post, and there's lots of interest in the sub around Cortexyme, so with his permission here it is reposted on the subreddit.

---

CRTX - Bull thesis is that there's an intracellular anaerobic infection named P gingivalis that you get from gingivitis which causes a chronic brain infection, releases a toxin called gingipain, which causes inflammation, amyloid and tau plaques, and thus neurodegeneration causing Alzheimer's. This is literally the claim.

Catalyst - Pivotal Ph3 readout by 11/11/21.

My Counterpoints:

P GINGIVALIS DOES NOT CAUSE CHRONIC, LATENT BRAIN INFECTION.

1. Translocation of bacteria from oral cavity to brain can happen. There are no known examples of bacterial pathogens in the brain that do not cause symptoms. Is it plausible? Maybe, but highly unlikely. The theory that patients with gingivitis commonly have small numbers of this bacterial pathogen hitch a ride inside immune cells heading to the brain, and become entrenched, but are so small in number they don't cause acute symptoms requires a lot of imagination. (Known mechanisms: https://www.nature.com/articles/nrmicro.2016.178)

2. Asymptomatic/latent infections do not fit with any of the reported cases of CNS infections of P gingivitis, which are exquisitely rare and acutely symptomatic. Examples: https://casereports.bmj.com/content/2017/bcr-2016-218845.short, https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3841642/

3. Why do patients on chemo, immunosuppressives, AIDS, etc not manifest symptomatic CNS P gingivalis infection from their latent P gingivalis being unleashed? We completely destroy different aspects of people's immune systems quite frequently, yet this issue magically never comes up. See above case reports, my clinical experience, common fucking sense, etc.

4. The only reported evidence of P gingivalis infection found in people's brains are data from Cortexyme, e.g. CSO Stephen Domini. I've found no third-party confirmation. On a slide where the company tries to make the case they are validated by independent labs, even they can only find tangential pieces of data supported by third parties.

**5.

Antibiotics are drugs that can treat bacterial infections. Our bodies contain healthy bacteria that live in a specific location, like on our skin and in our colon. When this bacteria moves to another part of the body, like in a urinary tract infection, or if we come into contact with bacteria that is not normally present in our bodies, like in the case of food poisoning cause, this results in a bacterial infection that causes unwanted symptoms and must be treated with antibiotics before we can start feeling better.

For many people, the first thought that arises on being prescribed an antibiotic is whether it is penicillin. Penicillin was discovered more than 90 years ago by Alexander Fleming in 1928. Fleming, a Scottish scientist, accidentally found that a ‘fluffy white’ substance that changed color throughout the course of a few days contaminated a plate of bacteria that he was growing in the laboratory. This fluffy white mass was identified to be a mold (Penicillium notatum) that was capable of killing the bacteria that he was growing. Further research with penicillin showed that it could kill a group of bacteria called  ‘gram-positive’ organisms. These include infections caused by bacterial species Streptococcus or Staphylococcus. While Fleming only spent a few years studying this revolutionary new discovery, it was rapidly picked up by others and by the 1940s, patients were successfully being treated with penicillin to clear them from bacterial infections caused by gram-positive organisms. It is estimated that penicillin was instrumental in drastically reducing the number of deaths due to infections and amputations during World-War II. Today, the penicillins include more than five sub-groups and over fifteen antibiotics, and they are among the most widely used antibiotics in the world for bacterial infections.

https://preview.redd.it/xeqcs3kftq981.jpg?width=700&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=461353f9051a8d8d33496ac83e2b75d7c1dcf12b

Penicillin was originally used to describe the drug benzylpenicillin, or Penicillin G. Now, it is used to describe a group of antibiotics that all contain a chemical beta-lactam ring structure with many natural and synthetic derivatives of the original penicillin available. One of the most commonly prescribed penicillin-type antibiotics is Amoxicillin (also known as the brand Moxatag, Amoxil or Augmentin when combined with another beta-lactamase inhibitor clavunalate potassium). Other common penicillin-typ

Bacterial infections affect nearly everyone at some point in their lifetime, and these conditions are commonly treated with broad spectrum antibiotics like azithromycin and erythromycin. Unfortunately, erythromycin in particular is associated with a number of uncomfortable side effects, including gastrointestinal distress, and interacts with a long list of medications. Is azithromycin a good alternative to erythromycin?

Overview

Azithromycin and erythromycin are FDA-approved prescription medications that belong to a class of drugs called macrolide antibiotics. Macrolide antibiotics work by i bacteria from producing certain proteins that are required for reproduction and survival. Macrolide antibiotics in general are prescribed for the treatment of many different types of bacterial infections, but there are differences in the specific types of infections that are treated by azithromycin and erythromycin, as outlined below. Azithromycin is sold under the brand name Zithromax, while erythromycin is known by the brand name Erythrocin. Both act as a protein synthesis inhibitor and can be taken in an intravenous or intracellular format. However, both drugs are most commonly prescribed in their generic forms.

Conditions Treated

Erythromycin and azithromycin are both used for the full eradication of certain bacterial infections in pediatric and adult applications.

Erythromycin is most commonly used to treat certain bacterial infections and infectious diseases, including:

• Bronchitis
• Legionnaires’ disease
• Pneumonia
• Pertussis (whooping cough)
• Diphtheria
• Syphilis and other sexually transmitted diseases
• Rheumatic fever
• Ear infections
• Intestinal infections
• Gynecological infections
• Urinary tract infections
• Lower respiratory tract infections
• Skin infections
• Acne
• Rosacea

Azithromycin is most commonly used for the treatment of the following:

• Infections of the middle ear (otitis media)
• Pneumonia
• Mycoplasma pneumoniae
• Laryngitis
• Infections caused by Gram-negative pathogens
• Sinusitis
• Skin infections
• Sexually transmitted diseases such as gonorrhea and chlamydia
• Infections caused by Mycobacterium pneumoniae
• Mycobacterial infections
• Infections caused by Streptococcus pneumoniae
• Infections caused by some strains of Staphylococcus aureus
• Tonsillitis
• Infections caused by Haemophilus influenzae

Both erythrom

TLDR: don't feel fatigue as such, just PEM. ??? Is fatigue just my lifelong baseline???

Hey I'm the postviral-something girl with PEM. Im sorry for posting so much but this subreddit has been immensely helpful to my remission for my last several months postviral bout, and I'm trying to find out as much as I can before my visit with a rheumatogist in two weeks.

Please let me know if I'm being inappropriate.

These days I get short of breath and dizzy after slowly walking or standing for a few minutes, and I get delayed flu-like symptoms if I push my limit, but I don't really sense a "fatigue" on better days like I used to with past severe depression, where even starting any movement was physically difficult. When I was not depressed I also got tired and faint very quickly after physical work but it would resolve with a bit of rest and I could do it again with little ill effect. This was all before I had the PEM shit.

Someone here says fatigue is the defining symptom, but I'm full of mental energy and have no brain fog, though I've recently started physically crashing after mental or emotional exertion, and hitting my physical limit makes me shake all over and get nauseous.

On the other hand, I've rarely had much energy before, presumably due to frequent severe depression except when I get mild hypomania, or perhaps due to ADHD executive function disorder... and I've always been a very sickly person who got respiratory illness like bronchitis or tracheitis after cold exposure, without any contact with ill people. It would usually last up to two weeks with CRP coming back normal. It took me months to recover from atypical pneumonia with chlamydia pneumoniae and mycoplasma. I skipped months of school half due to lingering illness half from faking cause I couldn't handle the bullying. I've been needing naps for years.

Someone else told me this might have been very mild childhood/teenage CFS. Could it be fatigue is just my baseline?

Just to validate me a bit more, my brother is a doctor and was the one who suggested postviral/CFS to me. Current official diagnoses are fibromyalgia and dysautonomia but the clinic has no real answer yet.

Does anyone else have the same experience? I feel quite guilty and fake since this comes and goes and I don't describe this stuff as fatigue.

Thank you to all who was able to read this ADHD wall. I love you all so much.

I have had this Western blot blood work done. It came back IgM positive only. But what does a "positive test" actually mean? I’ve heard contradicting opinions:

On one hand, many people have IgM antibodies only but not IgG. I found out that scientific research shows that 40% of Lyme patients with erythema migrans never seroconvert; therefore, show NO antibodies ever, both before and after treatment. In the remaining majority of cases, the WB test shows IgM antibodies and never shows IgG antibodies, either before or after treatment. IgG seroconversion in Western blots is thought to be rare. IgM antibodies may persist for life, moreover they are likely to cross-react.

On the other hand, I found out that “a positive result” means a high titer of IgM or IgG antibodies. End of story. Because specific antibodies are produced in response to contact with Borrelia burgdorferi, and as far as we know, there is no concept of people being Lyme disease vectors only, neither there is a known method of fully eradicating it from the body. Borrelias do not always have to manifest their presence with symptoms, but their presence itself is pathological and on this basis it is possible to determine the disease in the "acute phase" or in the chronic phase (IgG for chronic and IgM for acute). There are many antibody detecting methods, yet we never treat the results themselves, but a patient who has specific symptoms.

Results of my tick-borne co-infections serological testing came positive for: bartonella in IgM and IgG, and chlamydia pneumoniae in all IgM and IgG and IgA, and mycoplasma pneumonia in IgG only, and yersinia enterocolitica IgG only, BUT I haven’t recorded suffering from any characteristic and unequivocal symptoms of these infections. I don’t know with which method testing co-infections is being performed in your country, but mine are, again, based on antibodies detection (ELISA method) and these are the best available in my country. However, some doctors do not think these are reliable. Some even don’t believe that co-infections exist.

And what comes down to symptoms! My only symptoms are (for approx. 3 years):

1. brain fog (it appears especially after meals, oftentimes when I am not eating anything, I feel normal. It comes and goes. Some days I am brainfogged, some I feel absolutely fine even if I eat the same stuff);
2. carbohydrate metabolism disorder (my insulin levels are now balanced due to sugar free, low carb and low glycemic diet);
3. fatigue (again a

Do your worst!

For context I'm a Refuse Driver (Garbage man) & today I was on food waste. After I'd tipped I was checking the wagon for any defects when I spotted a lone pea balanced on the lifts.

I said "hey look, an escaPEA"

No one near me but it didn't half make me laugh for a good hour or so!

Edit: I can't believe how much this has blown up. Thank you everyone I've had a blast reading through the replies 😂