Chagas in US: 'Kissing Bugs' Becoming a Growing Concern, Report Says

[SnakeBoy]

The so-called "kissing bug," an insect that carries a deadly parasite that can cause Chagas disease, is becoming a growing concern in the United States, especially in Texas and Virginia.

Though the bugs are native to Mexico and Central and South America — there are an estimated 8 million people infected there — more and more cases are popping up in the U.S., according to The Atlantic.

Cardiologist Dr. Rachel Marcus told the news site that northern Virginia, in particular, could be "ground zero" for Chagas disease because of increasing number of Bolivian immigrants there.


Similarly, researchers at Texas A&M told KFDX.com they've discovered kissing bugs in Dallas.

Kissing bugs, or triatomine insects, transmit a parasite that causes Chagas disease, which, if left untreated, can lead to death. Infected people can live for many years without even knowing they have the disease, the World Health Organization reported. The parasites often live in the heart and digestive muscles, with as many as 30 percent of patients suffering from cardiac disorders and as many as 10 percent suffering from digestive problems.



Susan Montgomery, of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, told The Atlantic that U.S. doctors started hearing more about Chagas disease in 2007 when blood bank workers began screening for the disease.

Susan Morris, with the Wichita County Public Health District in Texas, told KFDX.com that the kissing bug infestation there is "worse this year because we've been in drought for the past few years and people are really collecting that water so we've had a lot of mosquitoes all over town."

National Public Radio pointed to a study published Wednesday in the science journal Emerging Infectious Diseases that stated that infected dogs are acting as sort of Trojan horses in introducing the Chagas disease in Texas.

"From shelter mutts to purebred show dogs, canines across the state of Texas are becoming infected with a parasite that causes a potentially deadly disease in people," NPR reported.

"Although the dogs aren't spreading the parasite directly to people, they are helping to make the disease more prevalent in the southern U.S. Not to mention the parasite can make dogs sick and even kill them."
http://www.newsmax.com/TheWire/chagas-in-us-kissing-bug/2014/07/28/id/585278/



I had two dogs die from Chagas, there was a nest of these bugs by the patio where the dogs slept. Watch out for these bugs...

http://bugguide.net/images/cache/EHJHUH3H4HUZKL1Z5LUZ7L9ZILLR5HDH5HDHKL5ZIL1ZKLCHRL 2Z0LOHKL2ZHL5ZMLYHXLBZ0LDHMH1HMHVHRLEZSL.jpg

[SnakeBoy]

Stubborn Infection, Spread by Insects, Is Called ‘The New AIDS of the Americas’

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2012/05/29/science/29GLOB_SPAN/global-articleLarge.jpg


Chagas disease, caused by parasites transmitted to humans by blood-sucking insects, has been named “the new AIDS of the Americas” in a lengthy editorial published in PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases.

The authors, several of whom are tropical disease experts from Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, argue that the dangerous spread of Chagas through this hemisphere somewhat resembles the early spread of H.I.V.

Chagas is also known as American trypanosomiasis, because the bugs carry single-celled parasites called trypanosomes. (Their best-known relative, spread by tsetse flies in Africa, causes sleeping sickness.)

Like AIDS, the authors say, Chagas disease has a long incubation time and is hard or impossible to cure. Chagas infects up to eight million people in the hemisphere, mostly in Bolivia, Mexico, Colombia and Central America. But more than 300,000 of the infected live in the United States, many of them immigrants.

The disease can be transmitted from mother to child or by blood transfusion. About a quarter of its victims eventually will develop enlarged hearts or intestines, which can fail or burst, causing sudden death. Treatment involves harsh drugs taken for up to three months and works only if the disease is caught early.

The drugs are not as expensive as AIDS drugs, but there are shortages in poor countries. Because it is a disease of the poor, little money is spent on finding new treatments.

“Both diseases are highly stigmatizing,” the editorial noted. Immigrants may not get medical treatment, making Chagas more likely to spread.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/29/science/spread-of-chagas-is-called-the-new-aids-of-the-americas.html


Thanks illegal immigrants.