CHAGAS DISEASE IN THE USA - The new AIDS, also called the "kissing disease" - Over 300,000 Americans have it, but may not know it. They probably caught it in Mexico or South America.

Over 300,000 Americans have already been infected with the potentially fatal 'kissing bug disease' called Chagas

Chagas is being called the new AIDS because of its asymptomatic beginnings that can turn to a fatal end if the disease progresses

Many doctors aren't aware of the prevalence of Chagas and aren't testing people for the disease

It causes heart failure and other deadly complications that by the time they are realized cannot be helped with medicine.

The CDC believes most of the people infected with Chagas got the parasite in Mexico or South America before coming to the U.S.

  Trypanosoma cruzi - kissing bug

Over 300,000 Americans have already been infected with the potentially fatal 'kissing bug disease' called Chagas but U.S. healthcare workers lack of knowledge about the illness is letting many cases of the parasite unnoticed. Some doctors are calling it the 'new AIDS' because of the way it develops.

 

Researchers who gathered on Tuesday at the annual American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene meeting in New Orleans said that if caught early the disease can be cured however sometimes the disease can be asymptomatic and there is a dearth in medication for the condition.

 

The CDC reports that the initial symptoms of the disease caused by a parasite, Trypanosoma cruzi, which is spread through the feces of kissing bugs includes fever, fatigue, body aches, rash, diarrhea and vomiting.  One of the first visual signs can be a skin lesion or a purplish swelling of the lid of one eye.

 

The disease can develop in the body causing eventual heart failure and other deadly complications that by the time they are realized cannot be helped with medicine.

 

Chagas is being called the new AIDS because of its asymptomatic beginnings that can turn to a fatal end if the disease progresses. 

 

'We were astonished to not only find such a high rate of individuals testing positive for Chagas in their blood, but also high rates of heart disease that appear to be Chagas-related,' said Nolan Garcia, an epidemiologist at the Baylor College of Medicine.

 

The CDC has said that they believe most of the people infected with Chagas got the parasite in Mexico or South America before coming to the U.S.

 The Food and Drug Administration has not yet approved two medicines called nifurtimox and benznidazole that are currently used to treat.

 

The medications also put people at risk for the disease nerve damage, nausea and weight loss, reports Aljazeera.

 

The CDC only makes the drugs available when no alternatives exist.

 

'The disease can be fatal if not treated,' said Melissa Nolan Garcia, a research associate at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston and co-author of a separate study on Chagas disease in Texas published in the American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene on Tuesday.

 

'You are normally asymptomatic until disease has progressed at which time treatment is not helpful. We call this the silent disease,' Garcia said.

 

'The concerning thing is that majority of the patients [I spoke to] are going to physicians, and the physicians are telling them, ‘No you don’t have the disease,’ she said.

 

Source

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2827116/Kissing-bug-disease-infected-300-000-people-don-t-know-parasite-referred-new-AIDS.html

 

RELATED

 

World Health Organization (WHO) information page

Chagas disease, also known as American trypanosomiasis, is a potentially life-threatening illness caused by the protozoan parasite, Trypanosoma cruzi (T. cruzi). It is found mainly in Latin American countries, where it is mostly vector-borne transmitted to humans by contact with faeces of triatomine bugs, known as 'kissing bugs'.

Read more

http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs340/en/

 

THE NEGLECTED TROPICAL DISEASES - NTDs 

Besides Ebola there are numerous dangerous tropical diseases that don't get enough funding or media coverage - Many of them affect Central America and the southern US - 12 million Americans are already afflicted, and 1 billion world wide.

Read more

http://ottersandsciencenews.blogspot.ca/2014/10/the-neglected-tropical-diseases-ntds.html

 

MOSQUITO THAT TRANSMITS YELLOW FEVER, DENGUE, and other tropical diseases, found IN LOS ANGELES COUNTY.

Read more

http://ottersandsciencenews.blogspot.ca/2014/10/mosquito-that-transmits-yellow-fever.html


Have migrants from Central and South American brought dengue fever to the US?
Infected people infect mosquitos, who in turn infect other people.
http://mobile.wnd.com/2014/11/another-eradicated-disease-invading-u-s/
 

 

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