Migration Spreads Chagas Disease From Rural Latin America to Cities Worldwide Lucila Pellettieri - Global Press Institute
go to original June 15, 2013

It is deadly, it is spreading quickly and most of the world has never heard of it. Chagas, a parasitic disease is spread by the vinchucas bug bite. (AlJazeeraEnglish)

... In recent decades, Chagas disease has spread from Latin America around the globe through human migration, triggering an increase in international resources to tackle the disease. Whereas residents of rural areas, where the insect that carries the parasite lives, consider Chagas disease to be normal, those infected in urban areas face stigma because of the disease’s association with poverty. Although past generations did not think the disease was treatable, Argentina became the region’s supplier of a medication to combat it last year. In addition to providing treatment, organizations like Mundo Sano are promoting prevention programs in rural areas.

The Trypanosoma cruzi parasite causes American Trypanosomiasis, also known as Chagas disease, says Analía Toledano, a biochemist at the blood bank of Hospital de Clínicas José de San Martín, a teaching hospital operated by Universidad de Buenos Aires. The parasite affects the heart and can also cause neurological and digestive problems.

The parasite infects 7 million people to 8 million people throughout the world, mostly in Latin America, according to 2013 data from the World Health Organization. Chagas disease killed more than 10,000 people in 2008.

The parasite infected 2 million people in Argentina as of 2010, according to the national Ministry of Health. The vector that carries it, the triatomine bug, also known as the kissing bug, lived in nearly 70 percent of the country.

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