By IBTimes Staff Reporter: Subscribe to IBTimes's RSS feed

May 31, 2012 5:38 PM EDT

Chagas disease has the potential to become the "new AIDS" of the Americas after scientists discovered a parasitic infection passed on by so-called "kissing bugs," according to a study published in PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases.

The kissing bug is the primary source of Chagas disease, which scientists say could become the new AIDS of the Americas.

The scientists argue that Chagas, or American trypanosomiasis, has flown under the radar while becoming so ubiquitous and serious, it could become the next pandemic virus and a public health emergency.

"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," the study said. "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."

The disease is believed to have hit mostly Central and South America, with an estimated 10 million people infected. It kills about 20,000 people every year. Scientists estimate up to another million cases exist in the U.S., and it is on the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Neglected Parasitic Infections list.
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Chagas disease, at its worst, causes an enlarged heart and intestines that can burst suddenly and cause death. It is treatable in its early stages, although it is largely asymptomatic during that period, and can go undetected for years before finally damaging the heart, intestines and esophagus.

The AIDS analogy, though alarming, is apropos. Both infect mostly the poverty-stricken masses that cannot afford diagnosis or treatment. Both are chronic conditions with limited access to treatment options, especially where they are most prevalent.

The disease resides in the belly of the triatoma bug, a long-snouted insect that drops down from thatched roofs and wall crevices onto sleeping victims. The blood-sucking bug prefers to dig in at the corners of a person's mouth, hence its nickname "the kissing bug." While it feeds, it also unloads previously digested food, which also carries Chagas disease. When victims awake, they typically rub the spot of the bite, shoving the diseased feces into the open would and leading to infection.

Untested blood used in transfusions can also lead to infections. The kissing bug lives in tropical climates and most of its victims are in poverty-stricken regions with limited access to medical care.

Many of the infected are migrating from their home regions to richer locales, bringing the disease with them. This becomes a problem when women unknowingly infected with Chagas give birth, as the disease can be spread from mother to child, or when someone donates blood, all in a region where doctors are unfamiliar with the disease.
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Eh. I wasn't planning on sleeping tonight anyway.

^this


i'll never be able to sleep with a stuffy nose again.

Seriously. Thanks Shelton. Congestive heart failure and a giant scorpion slash spider that looks like it came from the pits of hell releasing it's bowels near the corners of my mouth while I'm sleeping sounds like a hell of a time.


But Aids is better. At least you usually get it from something tolerable - doing drugs or having sex, but with this, a bug craps on you and gives you the disease. Dafuq?

on a different note, chagas sounds like a resident evil parasite.

all of the americas is the new racoon city.

I'n thinkin about my rhythm it's dope and much betta
These rappers think they're animals nope it's Chuck Testa

Best line ever.


But yeah. I don't think it has the potential to become the next AIDS, or even a huge threat. It said it can take up to 20 years for anything serious to develop with the heart, while if you eat a standard American diet for 20 years, you would already be dead. See where I'm going? No disease can be worse than a Mcdonalds on every corner and people at the gym walking 2 MPH on the treadmill and considering that a 'workout'.

I love bugs. Mostly caterpillars, butterflies and bees, not spiders and flies and worms. But still love them. But this is just... this is just... a spawn of Satan.


KILL IT WITH FIRE!

i feel like doing horrible things with this knowledge.

collect bugs.
do tests.
test on people.
people who don't blow up become B.O.Ws.
perfect disease.
become wesker.
?
profit.