My Battle With Mycoplasma Fermentans

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6. My Story - The First Occurance

Given my struggle with this and that diagnosis* is hampered by the lack of knowledge of the symptoms by hospital Doctors and GPs I thought I’d explain my experiences. I hope this helps you. It is unfortunate but has a good ending - I’m still alive to tell the tale. As stated above there is a simple cure IF you can persuade a Doctor to give it but the wrong drug makes it worse.

JANUARY 2013 - FIRST RECOGNITION

I’m always a very fit, active person and cycle everywhere. Yet over the first weeks I was being more characterised by ever increasing exhaustion l just needed to be in bed yet couldn’t sleep. In fact my mouth went dry so l constantly craved small sips of water.

Significant Symptoms

Within 3 weeks my speech became increasingly slurred. I discovered l could hardly pee and certainly couldn’t go at the back end. There was increasing confusion and swimmy head. Tunnel vision. I fell forward off the toilet and couldn’t get up. I lived next door to my GP. With ability to think failing l must’ve crawled to the surgery where l collapsed in a coma in Reception. On the A&E table at Ealing General Hospital l came to briefly. I had tunnel vision and merely remember this kindly, but worried looking, face say “Hurry up Nurse we’re losing this one”. From here on l have no idea of timescales but everything probably took days.

I don’t know how many days later l was moved from Intensive Care to HDU. There I woke covered in wires and on a drip. Some friends were around the bottom of my bed looking worried. The Vicar had oil of Chrism for last rites at the ready ! I couldn’t speak for many days. At some point I was moved to a close monitored ward.

Time must’ve passed on the ward. The first thing I remember was being in so much discomfort due to impacted faeces. They tried every drug & suppository to get it out but no luck. So l had to give consent for an operation that carries significant risk. I probably signed. That afternoon I asked to be carried to sit on the toilet and prayed intensely. They knocked on the door to say I must now go to theatre for the dreadful op. Again I have no idea of time but l refused to come out. They were sympathetic but it was time. With immense strain l got a bit out. I didn’t have the energy to be pleased. Over the next hour l got some more out. Sister & Nurses were euphoric.

Wow the relief from all my insides being so very backed up.

But What Had I Got ?

Time passed and there was still no proper diagnosis except inexplicably resistant pneumonia. On the Consultant’s ward rounds (always with a small crowd of students) there was never any explanations of what l had. Weeks went by but nobody could tell me what l had.

Until one night: a Polish Nurse came sat by. She said “I’ve been through your notes and they don’t know what you got. I do. It’s in my people. It was a biological weapon used by Hitler on us and the Czech. Knowing his huge army was built up why do you think he swept thru E Europe nearly unopposed ? Try to imagine all the countries knew that he would use his vast forces to attack so they build up vast weapons too. But why did they not defend themselves ? Try to think why ?”

She said “Your Mycoplasma and cant be seen on a microscope but death is always recorded as Pneumonia which by the way you’ve got as a secondary. Nobody here has experience of it because here only homeless get it and they might as well put Pneumonia on Death Cert because it’s detectable and believable. Besides who cares about them. At the start they gave you the wrong drug and it made you worse. Thank God they changed.” She was very worried for me.

The next day l naively asked the Doctors about this. They couldn’t be sure but admitted no experience. They decided to send my blood to tropical Diseases Dept. A week later the results came back inconclusive but the weeks of drugs l was on had marred this testing -my blood was a mess.

Instead of worsening me they had experimentally found an antibiotic that worked. At some point at least a month later, with brain still rather fuddled, they said l was being transferred to Clayponds Rehab. I had huge muscular atrophy (and I guess brain mess) so l must learn to coordinate walking and looking after myself again. Golly I was utterly surprised by this.

Back Again 3 Weeks After Discharge

Clayponds were brilliant and I was eventually discharged but only if I could be looked after. So some good friends (I & C know who they are) took me in. It was now 2½ months later in mid-March and still cool in UK. They agreed to put my bed hard against a large radiator and keep the central heating on all the time. I must’ve held on to it so hard all the time that I probably got ripples from the metalwork embossed on my front ! Once I’d strengthened myself enough to go up and down stairs they allowed me outside for 5-10 mins at a time. What a massively long struggle for a once active cyclist.

It’s a funny thing when you are getting well and all is rosy but you have this nagging feeling. It got stronger. Then one Sunday: bang I was on the floor again; really quite ill internally. Yes the Nasty was back and wasn’t messing about.

More Medication

I’d had two weeks of medication at the hospital, at 1g per day, and they said “that should be enough to cure a horse”. First thing on Monday morning a GP was alerted and more medication acquired. I had to have another 2 weeks of it.

Return To Work mid-May 2014

Yes it took that long to get fit enough to return to work for ‘light duties’ after a set physiotherapy programme at home.

IDENTIFICATION

Medical Tests

So many tests that Doctors did proved inconclusive. This is why I’m writing this. As you saw the microbe is so small (0.1micrometer) that it can’t be seen with a powerful microscope - only the most powerful, special research based, type or an electron microscope.

My symptoms match up pretty well with:    Mycoplasma Fermentans

1. This Wikipedia page states:  “Investigations have focused on a possible link to it being a cofactor in HIV infection as well as fibromyalgia, Gulf War Syndrome and Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, however the belief that M. Fermentans is pathogenic in such conditions has largely been disregarded after the failure of several large scale studies to find a link. Due to its incredibly small size it is difficult to determine the full extent of its role in human diseases, while M. fermentans has been implicated in a myriad of diseases, research at the current point has not conclusively proven its pathogenicity in humans outside of opportunistic infections.”
   

The prefix ‘myco’ means fungus and Mycoplasma is now known to be an range of organisms in their own right. There is not agreement about how many strains there are -some websites cite 100 types and others say 200. They are the smallest and have the minimum amount of DNA to support life. They attack all cells indescriminately generally heading for the Mitochondrion - the powerhouse of the cell. This is not surprising given:

1. The Mitochondrion Wikipedia page states:  “Although most of a cell's DNA is contained in the cell nucleus, the mitochondrion has its own genome ("mitogenome") that is substantially similar to bacterial genomes.”
   

4. Mycoplasma Ubiquitous In Labs

Fungi are vital for plants to absorb water and nutrients. They are everywhere and so are the common forms of mycoplasma organisms. Sadly mycoplasmas are not widely understood yet they are so widespread that they are beginning to be seen as responsible for STI’s, male and female infertility, birth defects, infant mortality rates, chromosome abnormalities and translocation, onset of cancer (first reported in1960s as causing in vitro sickle cell malformations particularly colon, prostate and renal cancers), 17% of human skin eruptions etc.

The sad thing is they are such a very common, but unrecognised, laboratory contaminant which a serious problem if you are trying to isolate one strain.

Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Centre

They are mostly concerned that it contaminates many cell culture samples when looking for other diseases but that so often it isn’t noticed. They state:

1. “Mycoplasmas (PPLO) are small (0.2 – 0.3 micron) wall-less bacteria that can grow to very high concentrations in mammalian cell cultures, typically 107 – 108 organisms/ml, while remaining unobservable by regular light microscopy.”
   

See: LCCC Mycoplasma

A millilitre is one cubic centimetre so the sheer numbers of these microbes overwhelm.

Capricorn-Scientific Are Warning Labs

Only in he last few years has the scale of mycoplasma presence in the world been acknowledged. Here’s what these guys say:

1. “Mycoplasma are small, prokaryotic organisms, and are the most common contaminants found in cell cultures. Contamination by Mycoplasma continues to be a major issue in cell culture, as it can cause drastic changes in cell metabolism.
   

2. The presence of Mycoplasma influences the growth and proliferation of cells in culture negatively. They rob essential nutrients and cause diverse forms of cellular damage, which in turn may lead to significant errors in laboratory research results. It is believed that a large amount of cell lines nowadays are contaminated by Mycoplasma – often unknowingly.
   

3. Mycoplasma are the smallest, self-replicating organism discovered to date and easily pass through the typical sterile filtration processes, which are currently used to remove bacterial or fungal contaminants. As they have no cell walls, Mycoplasma are resistant to most common cell culture antibiotics that target cell wall synthesis, such as penicillin.”
   

See:  CapricornScientific/Mycoplasma

7. My Second Occurence

MARCH 2021 - IT CAN’T BE BACK !

Again it was a Friday evening. The meal I had caused me to feel violently sick. I took Milk Of Magnesia and went to bed. All the next day I nursed it with Gaviscon and other potions.

It subsided after a few days. A week later I was remarkably tired but as before I thought that it’s just a passing thing. Three days later I was really exhausted. My temperature kept going down and was sort of recovering sometimes. For another week something wasn’t right - I was unusually exhausted all the time and couldn’t get warm hardly ever. I had a couple of reasonable days but I wasn’t good. Then one Thursday evening over a month later, sitting down at my computer, bingo: my head span round and round. Next I find myself collapsed on the floor. I assume that I’d only been unconscious for a short while. Seriously confused I somehow contacted someone - can’t remember how. They came over and called an Ambulance. The paramedics took me into A&E and I was out-of-it for hours in a curtained off bay -they were dealing with a lot of Covid cases so didn’t want any cross-contamination. A cannula had been inserted in case I needed a quick response. After constant monitoring, chest x-rays and blood tests I was told that there were a few raised “markers” but nothing extreme.

Of course several Doctors visited me. One took a particular interest and I discussed that it could be Mycoplasma. He said that he’d heard of it but had no experience of it. He went off to ask others and came back saying that nobody else did. I told him that my Doctor had prescribed 2 x 0.5g Clarythromycin per day for 7 days (side effect: intense metalic taste on your tongue) and he went away. That he said was the right drug and is the highest advised dose. He added that he had read more and giving it intravenously does not improve its efficacy - you need it long term.

He warned me that due to Covid A&E needed my bed but in normal circumstances given my inconclusive results the hospital wouldn’t really want me as in in-patient anyway. Besides if I was to stay I’d run the risk of getting Covid because I’m obviously so weak and we don’t know how infectious you are to them who are also extremely weak. He was very honest and he said I am bound to sleep and eat very much better at home but if there is any problem ring Emergency again and we are happy to have another look.

I was discharged, got a taxi home and crashed out.

SYMPTOMS ARE ALL THOSE IN SECTION 1 ABOVE

So far I’m still trying to recover from this.

Updated April 2021

SO HOW EXACTLY DID I GET IT ?

If you’re reading this then it has got to dawn on you that it must be contagious. Of the few websites that might care all imply not really. Certainly back during WW2 Hitler had sprinkled very fine crystals of something. So how did I get it in the 21st century ?

I was booked to cover the Ealing Winter Night Shelter for the homeless one weekend. Generally 25 men are given a meal, and health advice if they want it, sheltered from sleeping rough in a local church. I had offered to do the overnights because nobody wanted to do them - I was used to them in my work pattern. At Friday lunchtime I was interviewed for a job over a meal. Unfortunately the prawn starter must have been off because by the evening I had food poisoning and it was quite bad. I didn’t realise how bad it was until I was due to turn up at the shelter. I decided to brave it because I thought I was of a strong constitution. When it comes to kip down time one has to sleep in the same large hall as the men in order to nip trouble in the bud and prevent theft. I don’t remember any being English - the majority being some form of E European. None spoke English very well so all babbled away in their own tongues. I coped and went home to bed the next day. I still wasn’t well. I had to go to work on Monday and felt weak but recovering. That was it, no problem, until..

Two weeks later I felt quite weak but put it down to lots of work. After another week I decided to call work for a sick day off for “being a few degrees under”. Instead of the rest improving things I very slightly got worse. I rang work again because a week went by and I couldn’t get out of bed. I was baffled. Then one afternoon I became confused. I noticed my speech was slurred.

   (>now go to the My First Occurance above and continue from there).

Mycoplasma Fermentans   Notice how much smaller it is than normal cells

(see arrows at the ends of cells)

2. Weaponised Mycoplasma

Obviously not all mycoplasmas are the same -some are an aggressively parasitic pathogen and the Wiki pages do not explain that some of them were developed as biological weapons but do say that for example 100% of Czech Republic lab samples will be contaminated and 11-15% of those in US, where they bothered to check, so the actual rate will be higher.

The weaponised variants remain in human populations in central Europe and Japan to this day. Outside of wikipedia at time of writing I found few websites with more information. Significant ones I’ve found so far are:

Level 9 News:  Bio-warfare The Soft-kill Solution

If you bother to read anything this material is dynamite. They state:

1. “There are 200 species of mycoplasmas. Most are innocuous and do no harm; only four or five are pathogenic. The Mycoplasma Fermentans (Incognitus strain) probably comes from the nucleus of the Brucellosis bacteria. This disease agent is not a bacteria, and not a virus; it is a mutated form of the Brucellosis bacteria, mutated with a Visna virus, from which the Mycoplasma, is extracted. Dr. Maurice Hilleman, chief virologist for the pharmaceutical company of Merck, Sharp and Dohme, stated that this disease agent is now carried by everybody in North America and possibly most people throughout the world. The Mycoplasma used to be very innocuous.”
   

See: Weaponized Mycoplasma

<< Back to: Need A Website To           

Mental Militia: Mycoplasma - A Crime Beyond Belief

These guys make for an insightful read. They chart the history of Mycoplasmas and their development from Brucellosis mutated from a visna virus which they say is a crime against humanity. They state:

1. “All the countries at war were experimenting with biological weapons. In 1942, the governments of the United States, Canada and Great Britain entered into a secret agreement to create two types of biological weapons (one that would kill and one that was disabling) for use in the war against Germany and Japan, who were also developing biological weapons. They primarily focused on brucellosis, and they began to weaponize the brucellosis bacteria..”
   

See: Mycoplasma - The Stealth Pathogen

Simple Indication

Given its difficult diagnosis. I’ve found one extremely simple indicator. It can’t be exclusive to many other illnesses but as the body temperature plummets it rules out many other infections where the body is able to raise its temperature. Most people think that there’s something wrong with the thermometer (obviously you need to rule this out somehow - I use relatively new digital). Here is a plot starting 1½ days after my medication started (sorry I wasn’t well enough to get the baseline). These are carefully taken readings, measured well under the tongue, waiting for the thermometer to beep to say it is accurate. Notice it stabilising and slowly increasing.

(There’s no such chart for the first time - I was too ill for too long)

Failures At Warwick Hospital

I can understand that A&E is a busy place and I was moved to an Acute Ward and then two others. Despite my strong suggestions no discussions were had with me as to what tests they had chosen to perform. However, because of their lack of discussion with me it dawned on me after a week that their results were proving inconclusive. Physio got me walking again but my complete exhaustion and cold sweats continued. Later that week, when I could, I would stretch and walk up and down the ward to ensure my muscles didn’t atrophy as they had before.

One week later, on the Friday, the last Consultant I saw never introduced herself. She breezed in and her first sarcastic words were “Why are YOU still here !” She continued implying that I was making it all up and I should leave the hospital. I kept repeating that I was not malingering and wanted to know whether a Mycoplasma Test had been done. She repeated her assertions and rudely turned from me not answering but murmured to her colleague “We’d better do more tests.” On Saturday more blood was taken. I knew from Ealing that the test takes a long time and I contemplated being accused of being a time waster, stuck indoors, in bed, with constant interruptions to sleep by people needing necessary treatment day and night. I asked to see a Doctor and a Doctor-on-call was brought in. She had no knowledge of my illness and little of my case. Later that day I rang friends for help - one couple were happy to nurse me in their home with the proviso that if my symptoms substantially worsen then I would return to hospital. I asked for my notes but was told that I would need to write letters separately for them. I asked to be discharged. In the UK a formal Discharge Letter, with all results, is prepared then given to the patient on leaving. Late on Saturday I was told none was available but was promised that it would be emailed to me and my GP. I stayed with my friends for exactly a week. They were really kind and understanding. I felt if others could do shopping for me I would be strong enough to go home -so have.

Another 10 days later and still neither my GP nor I have any clue what they did. I’m still ill but not quite as bad, thank God. I contact a GP every so often but a bit clueless what to do next.

Update 4th May 2021

Contact details on  page: Home

Myco - means related to funguses;             Plasma - Greek/Latin for mold       Fermentans -able to ferment sugars.

Simple cure in me: Clarithromycin (for 2-4 weeks) -a broad range antibacterial and antifungal macrolide (plus loads of other things).   All Penicillin related antibiotics made me worse.

It is as small as a virus so cannot be seen on a microscope slide. In the past it was very difficult to culture so impossible to diagnose !

Page last updated:  23/9/2022

1. Initial Symptoms

I caught it 2015 from people living on the street whilst I was suffering from a very bad case of food poisoning. It is subcellular and attacks the Mitochondria (the cell’s energy producing organelle) in every cell in every part of one’s body indiscriminately.

Crucial problems are:

1. •Ever decreasing ability to keep warm;
   

2. •Dry mouth and slurred speech;
   

3. •Steady reduction in body functions incl urination, defecation and the brain’s ability to make decisions for your own well-being;
   

4. •No Leukocytosis (the making of white blood cells to combat infection) -so Doctors don’t believe you have any problem !
   

5. •Not much sweat -ditto;
   

6. •Lowered heart rate and blood pressure;
   

7. •Ever increasing paralysis;
   

8. •I got Pneumonia. This is classic for street people because if a local authority even bothers with a post-mortem when they die this is claimed to be the cause not a symptom.

3. Wiki Description

In 2020 the Wikipedia pages were significantly improved so I can now recommend them as a general guide:    Wiki Mycoplasma

(Don’t get bogged down with Phytoplasmas as scientists are even now having difficulty isolating and culturing them for study !)

Weaponised Mycoplasma

They state:

1. “TESTING BRUCELLOSIS UPON AN UNSUSPECTING PUBLIC
   

2. Documented evidence proves that the biological weapons they were developing were tested on the public in various communities without their knowledge or consent. The government knew that crystalline brucellosis would cause disease in humans. Now they needed to determine how it spread, and the best way to disperse it. They tested dispersal methods for Brucella suis and Brucella melitensis at Dugway Proving Ground, Utah, June and September 1952. Probably, 100% of us now are infected with Brucella suis and Brucella melitensis. (ref. p.135, table 4 of Special Virus Cancer Program: Progress Report 8) . Another government document recommended the genesis of open air vulnerability tests, and covert research and development programs to be conducted by the army and supported by the Central Intelligence Agency. At that time, the government of Canada was asked by the government of the United States to cooperate in testing weaponized brucellosis, and Canada cooperated fully with the government of the United States. They wanted to determine (i) if mosquitoes will carry the disease and (ii) if the air will carry it. A government report stated that "…open air testing of infectious biological agents is considered essential to an ultimate understanding of biological warfare potentialities because of the many unknown factors affecting the degradation of micro-organisms in the atmosphere".”
   

See: Level 9 News: Weaponised Mycoplasma

For easier understanding this page has been colour coded:  My Stuff and  Nasty Facts

5. Mycoplasma Can Cause Cancer

American Library Of Medicine They have published a paper that links many cancer types to Mycoplasma infections: Mycoplasma Infections And Different Human Carcinomas (PMID: 11819772). The statistics are damning and they conclude: “There was high correlation between mycoplasma infection and different cancers which suggests the possibility of an association between the two. The mechanism involved in oncogenesis by mycoplasma remains unknown.”

American Society of Hematology In an article in their Blood magazine (Ash Publications) in December 2004 many examples of correlations between Mycoplasmas and cancerous deterioration were given. A particularly worrying one was that between Mycoplasma Fermentans and leukemia in mice. 

See the staggeringly comprehensive treatise here:  Blood - Issue 104 p13 onwards.

American Cancer Society Their research concluded in September 2009 shows that “approximately 20% of all worldwide cancers are caused by infection... Associated with these changes was an increase in karyotypic entropy, evident by the accumulation of chromosomal aberrations and polysomy. This is the first report describing the capacity of M. genitalium or M. hyorhinis infection to lead to the malignant transformation of benign human epithelial cells and may serve as a model to further study the relationship between prostatitis and prostatic carcinogenesis.”   See: Persistent Exposure to Mycoplasma Induces Malignant Transformation of Human Prostate Cells

Personal Anecdotal Evidence

In this modern era there can be many reasons for cancer being caused in human individuals. Thankfully both lineages of my family are clear and I’ve never smoked any substance nor taken any recreational drug of any kind yet in September 2022 I had to be operated on for a reasonable sized tumour on my left kidney.

Perhaps this is a coincidence ?  Perhaps for the foreseeable future it will remain as such because I can’t see drug companies getting rich out of this   ...yet.   Ho hum !