Chagas disease, caused by parasites transmitted to humans through blood-sucking insects, has been named “the new AIDS of the Americas” in a lengthy editorial published in PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases.
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According to The New York Times, a parasitic infection called Chagas Disease that has similarities to the early spread of HIV, has already affected as many as 8 million people in the Western Hemisphere, mainly in Bolivia, Mexico, Colombia and Central America, as well as some 30,0000 people in the U.S., the newspaper reported.
Chagas infects people in areas of poverty, and most U.S. cases are found in immigrants.
Like AIDS, Chagas is hard to detect and has a long incubation period before symptoms emerge.
Chagas is usually transmitted from the bite of blood-sucking insects that release a parasite called Trypanosoma cruzi into the victim’s bloodstream. The parasite can eventually make its way to the heart, where it can live and multiply.
The disease can also 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.
Infections often stay dormant for years, and then emerge as heart arrhythmias and heart failure.
If caught early, it can be treated with intense medication. Although the drugs are not as expensive as AIDS drugs, 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.
We pray this epidemic does not impact the world in the same way AIDS has.
