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.
0 comments :
Post a Comment