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Tag: chagas disease

  • ‘Kissing Bug’ Illnesses On the Rise in the U.S.

    Members of a typically subtropical family of insects commonly known as kissing bugs have been making their way further north in the United States, while carrying the deadly Chagas disease.

    Chagas disease, or American trypanosomiasis, is a parasitic ailment caused by the protozoan Trypanosoma cruzi. The parasite exists in the feces of the kissing bug (Triatoma infestans), and is spread while the insect is feeding on the blood of a vertebrate host, as it rubs its abdomen against an open bite wound.

    Acute infection with Chagas disease brings on mild symptoms which include fever, swollen lymph nodes, headaches and local swelling at the site of the bite. Chronic infection, which can take decades to produce symptoms, can lead to enlargement of the ventricles of the heart, leading to heart failure, and an enlarged esophagus and colon.

    The kissing bug, also known as the assassin bug, tends to go for its host’s lips while feeding:

    Roughly 8 million people are living with Chagas disease worldwide, and anti-parasitic medications are usually effective, if treatment is given during the acute phase of the infection. Treatment is less successful if a patient develops a chronic illness.

    The U.S. Centers for Disease Control believe that at least 300,000 Americans carry the Trypanosoma cruzi parasite, though domestic infection is rare, and it is believed that most cases of Chagas were contracted in Central and South America, where the disease is endemic.

    The CDC points out that while there are eleven different species of kissing bug that occur in the U.S., most of them do not carry Chagas.

    Below is a map of where kissing bugs have been recorded in North America:

    chagas

    The CDC considers Chagas as one of several neglected tropical diseases that it is focusing on. Roughly 11,000 people die annually of the disease, but its association with immigration and poverty may be preventing widespread awareness.

    Images via Wikimedia Commons, The CDC

  • Chagas Disease: Epidemic Currently Spreading Throughout the Americas

    Chagas disease has been making headlines as of late, often being described by medical professionals as journalists alike as the “new AIDS”. At present, there are thought to be more than 8 million people living with the disease in Latin and Central America. The United States, on the other hand, is home to nearly 300,000 individuals who are believed to be infected. Many feel that, because the Chagas disease has become so widespread, that it should be declared a public health emergency.

    If you have a weak stomach or are prone to nausea when reading news articles about infectious diseases, I would highly recommended skipping over this particular section, as it might lead to a series of unpleasant nightmares for the next few weeks. Chagas disease is a tropical parasitic infection spread by blood-sucking insects. It’s thought to be spread by such bugs such as the Triatoma, which, from what I understand, really enjoy the taste of human blood.

    Here’s how it typically goes down: The aforementioned insect, which is often referred to as “the kissing bug”, drops down on you while you’re sound asleep. After biting you around the lip and ingesting your blood as a late-night snack, they defecate on your face, a secretion that contains the copies of the parasite. When you wake up the next morning with an itchy bug bite on your grill, the ensuing scratching and/or rubbing effectively massages the insect feces into the wound. The next thing you know, your body is the proud host of the Chagas disease.

    Additionally, the disease can also be transfered by blood transfusion and from mother to child during pregnancy. It’s currently believed that Chagas kills 20,000 people every year.

    In an editorial published by Public Library of Science’s Neglected Tropical Diseases, the similarities to the AIDS/HIV epidemic are as follows:

    Both diseases are health disparities, disproportionately affecting people living in poverty. Both are chronic conditions requiring prolonged treatment courses… As with patients in the first two decades of the HIV/AIDS epidemic, most patients with Chagas disease do not have access to health care facilities. Both diseases are also highly stigmatizing, a feature that for Chagas disease further complicates access to … essential medicines, as well as access to serodiagnosis and medical counseling.

    Complications from the diseases include the enlarging of the heart and intestines, which, after a prolonged period of time, may burst, which, in turns, causes the person to die. If caught early enough, the disease can be treated with a series of harsh drugs over the course of several months. The only problem is that these medications are highly toxic, which may cause sufferers to trade one set of problems for another.