Confusional States

Question: How long can you have harboured Haemophilus influenzae in your lungs? Hi there I am suffering from autoimmune diseases (Hashimotos and vitiligo) and I always put my severe shortness of breath down to that. I also got a diagnosis of asthma 6 years ago after a doctor left me without treatment for acute bronchitis for 6 months before I insisted on antibiotics. So I do get episodes of asthma but it is controlled and is a different breathlessness which I get on exertion. I am told my heart is ok after a echo too. I decided to ask for a sputum test as I am so sick of the CFS label and not getting any further investigations done. The culture showed I had Haemophilus influenzae lung infection. I have been having terrible pains around my ribcage too for ages. I had a chest xray after being admitted to hospital for a confusional state last year and it showed scarring which they said would be from an old infection, however I have had raised wbc counts for over 2 years and high inflammation markers. I recently developed high rbc counts. My question is then, how long could I have been harbouring this, I don't have any additional symptoms since they found it, I am just the same, irritated bronchi and a little sputum and cough. Do you think this could have been causing problems for a long time? thanks in advance Blondie

Answer: Haemphilus influenza is quite an interesting organism.It can be encapsulated or nonencapsulated. It can lay dormant in your body encapsulated four years. but even encapsulated can cause inflammatory reactions.Maybe the reason for the inflammation markers. The doctors would have to do a spinal tap and culture that for a pure sample to show uncontaminated migration of H. bacillus into the CNS. Samples taken from the nose or sputum from the lungs could show a normal level of H. bacillus virtually everyone has. It can certainly be the cause of your chronic condition and I'd be going to a good pulmonologist who might seek the advice of an epidemiologist. They'll get to the bottom of it. God bless and help you through this.