Infected with BK virus, what should I do?

[MikeChe]

Hello, everyone. I am 9 months post transplant.

In a recent urine test, my bk virus is at 7 log. I do the bk test regularly(every 2 months) after transplant, and this is the first time I find I am with bk virus.

Now my creatinine level is at normal level, and other tests also show no significant change. Also, my body does not have any symptom yet.

What should I do now to prevent the virus from spreading in addition to changing my medication.

And I don’t understand why bk virus would increase to such a high level within 2 months, given that my lymphocytes numbers are at healthy level.

[DexterLab]

BK virus can cause serious damage to your new kidney, so this is serious. You should be working with your transplant center on this.

I got BK about 9 months after my transplant. They stopped my Cellcept and added Prednisone. I was tested for BK every week. It went down slowly, about a factor of 10 each week. Took about 2 months. Back onto Cellcept and off the Prednisone. Hasn't been back for almost 3 years. Good luck.

[Transplant2018 in reply to DexterLab]

BK is fairly common following transplant. When it was detected in my bloodwork my myfortic was reduced for a couple of months until it was cleared, and then increased again but not to the original level. That was years ago and BK never returned.

[MikeChe in reply to DexterLab]

Thank you for your reply.😀 My doctor suggests me to take some other tests and then decide what to do next.

[Porter20 in reply to MikeChe]

immediately my doctor reduced Myfortic to 1 am 1pm instead of 2am 2pm. They say there is nothing they can do and that personal immunity fights it best. This is why Myfortic is reduced. Once gone meds went back to normal.

[MikeChe in reply to Porter20]

Yes. I was also told that our immunity works best to fight against the virus. And i was also advised to do the lymphocytes subgroup test, as a reference for my immunity level .

[gardengirl97301]

I had that happen and the doctor told me as long as my other numbers were good, he wasn’t worried about it. I think it’s more of a concern right after transplant, but I don’t know that for sure. It freaked me out when it first showed up. If I remember correctly, it has to be a certain level before they get concerned.

[MikeChe in reply to gardengirl97301]

Thank you for sharing. I was freaked out too! And my doc also said that I didn’t have to change my medication as long as my other test results were good.

[Porter20 in reply to gardengirl97301]

yes hundreds of thousands

[bisley]

I also have the bk virus both viremia and viuria. I was switched from mycophenalate to leufluimide for the viremia and the viral load has been on a steady decline. I wish I could say the same for the viruria. I also started out at 7e8. I was started on bladder instillation of cidofovir once a week and I just finished my ninth instillation. At first my viral load dropped significantly. Once I reached 49e7 the viral load started to increase. Currently, I'm up to 1.8e8. At this point even my uroncologist is at a loss as to what to do next. Not a lot of data out there on treating this virus.

[MikeChe in reply to bisley]

I found out that bk virus (only viuria) about 5 months ago. After some other tests, I lowered tacrolimus to 1.5 (milligrams ) am& pm from 2 am&pm.

About 2 months later, my urine bk level decreased to 8e3. And it didn’t change much since then.

The last time I took that test was about half a month ago, and it was still at 9e3.

[Porter20]

My doctor reduced my myfortic to let natural immunity take over. No drugs for BK. Thankful my body killed it off. Hope to never see it again. They say it is a common virus caught as a kid that lays dormant in your urinary tract.