An Alternative to Mepron...Alinia

When I went to the doctor in Seattle this morning, I told her that I could not afford to stay on Mepron. Unfortunately, Mepron has been the most effective of any of the drugs I'm on, because it is a very strong antibiotic and it's an anti-malarial. One of the infections that I got from that tick bite was Babesia, (I actually have two different strains, Babesia duncani & Babesia microti.) Babesia is an infection of the red blood cells, and is extremely difficult to treat. Traditional treatment is with high doses of anti-malarial drugs, Mepron (atovaquone) being among the best.

The problem is that Mepron costs me $465 every ten days (that's with my Rx insurance) except that since I've been on it for several months, the insurance doesn't want to cover it anymore, so the full cost of about $4500/month just for the Mepron, would be up to us. I told my doctor that it might as well be a million dollars, because we don't have $4500 a month to spend on one antibiotic. We have looked into several prescription assistance programs, but because I have insurance, (even though it won't cover Mepron,) we don't qualify for the programs. This was extremely discouraging, because in some ways, I feel like Mepron was giving me my life back.

Well, great news! There is an alternative to Mepron, called Alinia (generic is Nitazoxanide or Nizonide) that has been effective for some people that didn't respond well to Mepron. It is in tablet form, and is about $1200 from a pharmacy if purchased in the U.S., but we are looking into trying to get it from Canada or somewhere else. I will keep you posted on our search and also on how I respond to it here in the near future. We are cautiously optimistic that this might be a great alternative for me.