Chronic Illness, Vector-Borne Infection, and Why Lyme Assessment Is Foundational

Chronic illness rarely arises from a single isolated issue. Instead, it reflects a persistent disruption of normal immune, inflammatory, and cellular regulation, often driven by unrecognized infections that evade standard medical detection. Within this landscape, vector-borne infections (VBI)—those transmitted by ticks, fleas, mosquitoes, and other vectors—represent one of the most common and underappreciated root contributors to long-standing, multi-system symptoms.

Among VBIs, Lyme disease (Borrelia species) occupies a central role and is therefore the primary screening priority in Jivora's model. Borrelia is a highly adaptive organism capable of altering its surface proteins, shifting into intracellular or dormant forms, and suppressing immune signaling. These features allow it to persist even when standard testing is negative, particularly in individuals who have been symptomatic for months or years.

When Borrelia is present, it is rarely alone. Co-infections frequently compound symptom burden and immune dysfunction. Common examples include:

Babesia

A red blood cell parasite often associated with air hunger, night sweats, pressure headaches, temperature dysregulation, and profound fatigue.

Bartonella

An intracellular bacterium linked to neurological symptoms, anxiety or mood changes, burning or stabbing pain, skin sensitivity or streaking, vascular symptoms, and autonomic instability.

Mycoplasma and Chlamydia pneumoniae

Intracellular respiratory pathogens associated with chronic fatigue, muscle and joint pain, brain fog, and inflammatory or autoimmune-type symptoms.

Rickettsia and Anaplasma

Endothelial-tropic organisms that can drive persistent inflammation, headaches, neuropathic pain, fevers, rashes, and post-infectious syndromes.

Importantly, viral reactivation often coexists with bacterial or parasitic infections. Addressing only one layer while ignoring others can limit recovery. Screening for viral immune activity helps clarify whether a viral burden is adding to symptom persistence and immune overload, informing more targeted next steps.

Chronic Viral Reactivation as a Driver of Persistent Symptoms

In individuals with prolonged immune stress—whether from infection, inflammation, toxic burden, or metabolic strain—latent viruses can reactivate and become a major contributor to ongoing symptoms. These viruses are not newly acquired; rather, they are commonly acquired earlier in life and remain dormant until immune regulation weakens.

Within the Ladder of Health model, chronic viral reactivation is understood as both a consequence and amplifier of immune dysfunction. Viral activity can worsen fatigue, impair cognition, disrupt sleep, and perpetuate inflammatory signaling across multiple organ systems.

Epstein–Barr virus (EBV)

Frequently linked to exhaustion, post-exertional crashes, brain fog, lymphatic congestion, and immune dysregulation.

Cytomegalovirus (CMV)

Associated with fatigue, vascular inflammation, autonomic symptoms, and impaired immune resilience.

Coxsackie viruses

Enteroviruses implicated in muscle pain, exertional intolerance, gastrointestinal symptoms, and post-viral fatigue syndromes.

Varicella zoster virus (VZV)

Can reactivate subclinically, contributing to neuropathic pain, sensory disturbances, fatigue, and inflammatory flares even in the absence of shingles.

Importantly, viral reactivation often coexists with bacterial or parasitic infections. Addressing only one layer while ignoring others can limit recovery. Screening for viral immune activity helps clarify whether a viral burden is adding to symptom persistence and immune overload, informing more targeted next steps.

Parasitic Infections and Their Overlooked Role in Chronic Illness

Parasitic infections are frequently dismissed as rare or travel-related, yet growing evidence suggests that chronic or latent parasitosis is far more common than traditionally recognized, even in developed countries. These organisms can persist silently for years, contributing to inflammation, immune imbalance, and nutrient depletion.

From a functional perspective, parasites can act as chronic immune stressors, diverting immune resources and worsening symptoms driven by other infections. They may also disrupt gut integrity and microbiome balance, amplifying systemic inflammation.

Key parasites addressed within the Jivora framework include:

Taenia (tapeworm)

Can be associated with nutrient deficiencies, gastrointestinal symptoms, neurological involvement, and immune suppression.

Entamoeba histolytica

Linked to chronic digestive distress, abdominal pain, inflammatory bowel-type symptoms, and systemic inflammation.

Toxoplasma gondii

A common protozoan associated with fatigue, mood changes, neurologic symptoms, and immune modulation.

Ascaris lumbricoides

A roundworm that can contribute to abdominal symptoms, immune activation, and systemic inflammatory burden.

Because routine medical testing rarely screens for these organisms unless acute illness is suspected, antibody-based immune screening provides a valuable window into prior exposure and possible ongoing immune activation. Identifying parasitic involvement can explain otherwise unexplained symptoms and remove a hidden obstacle to recovery.

The Role of Symptom-Based Questionnaires in Guiding Testing Decisions

Given the complexity of chronic illness and the overlap of symptoms across infections, testing without clinical context can be confusing or incomplete. The Ladder of Health model therefore emphasizes structured, symptom-based questionnaires as a foundational decision-making tool.

These questionnaires allow individuals to:

  • Identify symptom patterns that align with specific categories of infection
  • Prioritize which testing panels are most clinically relevant
  • Avoid unnecessary or premature testing
  • Create a logical, stepwise approach to investigation rather than guessing

By combining symptom severity scoring with immune-based laboratory screening, Jivora's approach mirrors how experienced functional and Lyme-literate clinicians evaluate complex cases—starting with the most likely root drivers and expanding only when clinically indicated.

The goal is not to self-diagnose, but to provide direction, clarity, and confidence so individuals can take informed next steps, whether independently or in partnership with a qualified healthcare provider.

Economics of Testing

When evaluating at-home testing options, the true cost is not the price of the first test, but how effectively that test guides treatment, monitoring, and recovery over time. In this context, Jivora testing, powered by Armin Labs, offers substantially greater clinical and economic value than the IGeneX AcuDART, which is primarily designed as a one-time screening tool.

Qualitative Screening vs. Quantitative Clinical Insight

AcuDART results are qualitative (positive/negative) and not diagnostic, which limits their usefulness beyond initial screening. Positive results often create more questions than answers and necessitate finding, waiting for, and paying a knowledgeable provider willing to order necessary follow-up confirmatory testing, creating even more cost. Moreover, binary results leave no reliable way to assess:

  • Infection–immune burden
  • Partial infection–immune improvement
  • Effectiveness of a treatment protocol
  • When to adjust or stop treatment

By contrast, Jivora testing provides quantitative antibody values, including IgG and IgM (and IgA for select organisms such as Mycoplasma and Chlamydia pneumoniae). These core assays allow results to be:

  • Clinically actionable
  • Comparable over time
  • Interpretable in the context of symptom change

Integrated SeraSpot® Testing for Borrelia Diagnostic Precision

For Borrelia assessment specifically, Jivora includes SeraSpot multi-antigen immunoassay testing as an integral component of the Borrelia Immune Insight panel. 

The SeraSpot simultaneously measures immune responses to multiple Borrelia-specific antigens. This approach aligns with well-established immunologic data showing that Borrelia can suppress, vary, or shift antibody expression over time, particularly in chronic or previously treated infection. The addition of the SeraSpot lowers the risk of false-negative or equivocal results that often drive costly repeat testing.

Economically, including SeraSpot within the initial Borrelia evaluation:

  • Reduces the need for secondary Borrelia testing elsewhere
  • Improves diagnostic confidence earlier in the care process
  • Supports more targeted treatment decisions from the outset

Because SeraSpot® produces quantitative, antigen-specific data, it also supports meaningful longitudinal tracking when Borrelia immune activity is reassessed over time.

Designed for Retesting, Not Just Detection

Jivora testing across Borrelia and co-infection panels is intentionally structured to support planned, affordable retesting, which is essential in chronic and intracellular infections where progress is gradual rather than binary.

Potential strategies:

  • Post-treatment or post-challenge retesting at 6–8 weeks to assess early biologic response
  • Follow-up testing every 4–6 months, paired with symptom tracking, to evaluate trends in immune activity and clinical improvement

Because Jivora results are quantitative and reproducible, follow-up testing provides meaningful clinical insight rather than simply reconfirming that an infection “still exists.”

Fewer Downstream Costs

Testing through Jivora is performed in a CAP-certified, clinically validated laboratory, and results are broadly recognized by healthcare providers. This reduces:

  • The need for confirmatory testing elsewhere
  • Delays in care due to non-actionable results
  • Costs associated with fragmented or redundant diagnostics

In contrast, screening-level tests that are not universally accepted often lead to additional lab work, second opinions, and prolonged diagnostic uncertainty—all of which increase total out-of-pocket expense.

Bottom Line for Consumers

Compared to the AcuDART, Jivora testing consistently delivers:

  • Greater diagnostic clarity through integrated SeraSpot® and ELISA testing for both spirochetal and round body/persister forms of Borrelia
  • Quantitative IgG, IgM, and IgA data for Borrelia and co-infections
  • Measurable treatment tracking over time
  • Lower cumulative testing costs across the course of care
  • Improved confidence for both patients and providers

For individuals managing chronic, relapsing, or treatment-resistant symptoms, Jivora testing is not simply “more advanced”—it is more economical over the full course of care, because it is designed for layered diagnostics, pathogen-appropriate methodology, and longitudinal clinical decision-making rather than one-time screening.

Borrelia Immune Insight Panel

The Jivora Borrelia Immune Insight Panel is intentionally positioned as the foundational screening test within the Jivora ecosystem because chronic Borrelia infection represents the most common, most disruptive, and most frequently missed driver of chronic multi-system illness. Unlike conventional Lyme testing used by Quest, LabCorp, or hospital-based laboratories—which relies on outdated two-tier algorithms, single laboratory strains, and limited antigen targets—this panel integrates multiple complementary immune assessment technologies to evaluate how the immune system is responding to Borrelia across its known biological states. Specifically, it combines IgM and IgG antibodies to spirochetal (motile) Borrelia, IgG antibodies to non-motile persister/round-body forms, and the SeraSpot® multiplex microarray, which measures immune reactivity to multiple highly specific Borrelia proteins (including early, late, and chronic-phase antigens such as OspC, VlsE, DbpA, p39, p58, and p100). This layered approach is clinically critical because Borrelia is a shape-shifting, immune-evasive organism capable of suppressing antibody production, hiding intracellularly or within biofilms, and altering surface proteins—mechanisms that routinely lead to false-negative results on standard and even many specialty lab tests. By incorporating both wild and laboratory Borrelia strains, recombinant and native antigens, dynamic per-plate calibration, and quantitative plus qualitative reporting, the Jivora panel achieves markedly higher sensitivity (≈95%) and specificity (≈98%) than conventional testing and avoids many of the technical and biological limitations seen with other specialty labs such as IGeneX, Vibrant Wellness, or MDL, which often rely on narrower antigen sets, static cutoffs, or incomplete representation of Borrelia morphologies. Importantly, results from this panel do not diagnose disease in isolation; rather, they provide high-resolution immune insight that becomes clinically meaningful when interpreted alongside symptoms, history, and questionnaire data—making it the most logical and evidence-aligned first step for anyone with chronic, relapsing, or unexplained symptoms where Lyme disease is a possibility.

Bartonella-Babesia Immune Response Panel

The Jivora Bartonella–Babesia Immune Response Panel is designed to identify immune reactivity to the two most prevalent and clinically impactful co-infections associated with Lyme disease, both of which are well known to prolong illness, complicate recovery, and drive symptoms that persist despite Borrelia-focused treatment alone. This panel assesses IgG antibody responses to Bartonella henselae and Bartonella quintana—intracellular organisms associated with neurologic, vascular, autonomic, and neuropsychiatric symptom patterns—as well as IgG immune reactivity to Babesia, a protozoal red blood cell parasite linked to air hunger, night sweats, pressure headaches, temperature dysregulation, and profound fatigue. Importantly, while Babesia microti is listed for reporting clarity, the assay is validated to detect genus-level Babesia immune responses, meaning it can capture immune recognition to related Babesia species beyond microti that are increasingly implicated in chronic illness but often missed by species-restricted testing. As with Borrelia, both Bartonella and Babesia are capable of suppressing immune signaling and producing delayed, muted, or atypical antibody responses—making them easy to overlook with conventional laboratory methods. Processed through ArminLabs’ CAP- and CLIA-certified platforms, this panel uses rigorously controlled antigen presentation and calibrated cutoffs to provide reliable, clinically relevant immune insight, without the limitations of many hospital-based or narrower specialty assays. When interpreted in the context of symptom patterns and questionnaire data, the Bartonella–Babesia Immune Response Panel serves as a high-value, targeted expansion that helps explain ongoing inflammation, neurologic symptoms, dysautonomia, or relapsing fatigue in individuals whose clinical picture cannot be fully accounted for by Borrelia alone.

Multi-Microbial Immune Response Panel

The Jivora Multi-Microbial Immune Profile Panel is designed for individuals whose symptom patterns, questionnaire results, or prior testing suggest a more complex or layered infectious burden beyond Borrelia and basic co-infection screening. Using the same FDA-cleared Tasso® at-home blood collection system and ArminLabs’ CAP- and CLIA-certified processing, this panel evaluates immune reactivity to Chlamydia pneumoniae (IgG and IgA) and Mycoplasma pneumoniae (IgG and IgA)—two intracellular respiratory pathogens increasingly recognized for their role in chronic fatigue, musculoskeletal pain, neurocognitive dysfunction, vascular inflammation, and autoimmune-like syndromes—along with IgM antibodies to Bartonella henselae/quintana and Babesia, which may signal more recent, reactivated, or actively stimulated immune responses. The inclusion of IgA antibodies is particularly clinically relevant, as IgA often reflects persistent mucosal or intracellular immune activation that can be missed when testing is limited to IgG alone, especially in chronic or relapsing presentations. Similarly, the addition of IgM assessment for Bartonella and Babesia provides insight into immune dynamics that may fluctuate over time due to immune suppression, biofilm activity, or treatment-related antigen release—patterns commonly observed in long-standing illness. Like other Jivora panels, Babesia testing is validated to capture genus-level immune recognition, not solely *microti-restricted exposure, addressing a major blind spot in conventional and many specialty laboratory assays. By integrating these organisms into a single, strategically designed panel, the Multi-Microbial Immune Profile Panel offers broader immune mapping for individuals with relapsing symptoms, incomplete treatment response, or unclear drivers of ongoing inflammation—serving as a critical next step when foundational testing does not fully explain the clinical picture.

Rickettsial Immune Response Panel

A less recognized but still clinically important group of tick- and flea-associated organisms can produce distinct immune and inflammatory effects that may help explain persistent or relapsing symptoms in individuals already screened for Borrelia, Babesia and Bartonella. The Jivora Rickettsial Immune Response Panel is designed to evaluate immune responses to these organisms when symptom patterns, exposure history, or incomplete recovery suggest their possible involvement. Using the same FDA-cleared Tasso® at-home blood collection system and ArminLabs’ CAP- and CLIA-certified laboratory processing, this panel measures IgG and IgM antibodies to Rickettsia rickettsii and Rickettsia typhi—organisms associated with prolonged inflammatory symptoms, headaches, fevers, rashes, nerve irritation, and fatigue—as well as IgG and IgM immune responses to Anaplasma phagocytophilum and Ehrlichia chaffeensis, bacteria that infect immune cells and can contribute to flu-like illness, lingering fatigue, muscle and joint pain, neurologic symptoms, and abnormal immune signaling long after initial exposure. These infections are often overlooked because acute symptoms may be mild, atypical, or never formally diagnosed, yet immune activation can persist and interfere with recovery, particularly in individuals already dealing with Lyme or other co-infections. By assessing both early-phase (IgM) and longer-term (IgG) immune responses, this panel helps determine whether these less commonly tested organisms may be contributing to ongoing inflammation or symptom persistence. Consistent with lyme-informed clinical guidance and the Jivora Ladder of Health framework, the Rickettsial Immune Response Panel is not necessarily intended as a first-line screen for everyone, but rather as a targeted and valuable tool when clinical context, symptom questionnaires, or treatment resistance suggest that an additional infectious layer deserves consideration.