A composite risk map for Chagas disease in Texas.
According to Sahotra Sarkar's analysis eleven counties are
at particular risk: Bee, Bexar, Brooks, Cameron, DeWitt,
Goliad, Hidalgo, Jim Wells, Kenedy, Kleberg, and Nueces.
Posted on 10/17/2011 3:54:55 PM PDT by SwinneySwitch
AUSTIN, Texas — Chagas disease, a tropical parasitic disease that can lead to life-threatening heart and digestive disorders, may be more widespread in Texas than previously thought, according to research from The University of Texas at Austin.
A composite risk map for Chagas disease in Texas. According to Sahotra Sarkar's analysis eleven counties are at particular risk: Bee, Bexar, Brooks, Cameron, DeWitt, Goliad, Hidalgo, Jim Wells, Kenedy, Kleberg, and Nueces.
"We've been studying this for four years now, and this year the number of disease-causing insects is quite amazing," says Sahotra Sarkar, professor of integrative biology and philosophy at The University of Texas at Austin and lead author of a paper on the disease published in PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases.
Endemic to rural areas of Latin America, Chagas disease is often transmitted by triatomine bugs, also known as "kissing bugs."
In order to assess the prevalence of Chagas disease in Texas, Sarkar is working with a network of health professionals and researchers around the state. After collecting and classifying insects from the field, Sarkar sends them to Philip Williamson, an assistant professor at The University of North Texas Health Science Center. Williamson determines how many of the bugs carry the protozoa Trypanosoma cruzi, which causes the disease.
From the data Sarkar creates epidemiological maps showing the number and location of carrier insects, recorded human Chagas infections and hospitable habitats for the insects.
The maps suggest South Texas is an area of high risk for Chagas infection. Sarkar says there may already be hundreds of undiagnosed cases of the disease.
Chagas can be hard to detect because it can look like the flu at first, with symptoms similar to pains and fever. The symptoms appear to go away but the disease can live in a person for decades, sometimes reappearing in the form of digestive or heart failure.
In Texas, where most doctors are not familiar with the disease and are not required to report it to public health officials, they may misinterpret its late-onset symptoms as an old age problem, says Sarkar.
Sahotra Sarkar inspects a triatomine bug. It's one of the species that may be a carrier of the parasite that causes Chagas disease.
"So it doesn't get diagnosed at the beginning, and it doesn't get diagnosed at the end," he says.
Until further research is done, Sarkar and his colleagues won't be able to say for sure how widespread the disease is. They believe the risks are high enough, however, to recommend a few low-cost, low-impact changes to the way the Texas public health system deals with Chagas.
They say Chagas should be designated as a reportable disease, which would require health professionals to report incidences of it to the Texas Department of State Health Services. Efforts should be launched in South Texas to more thoroughly determine the prevalence of Chagas in humans, dogs and wild species (particularly rats) that often act as reservoirs of the disease. And there should be mandatory screening of blood donations for the presence of Chagas. Currently, screening is voluntary and only done with about 65 percent of samples.
In the future, Sarkar would like to see Mexico and the U.S. collaborate on a multi-layered attack on the disease. He points to the success of the Southern Cone Initiative in South America as a model. Simple changes in lifestyle, such as keeping piles of wood away from the home and encouraging people to switch from adobe or wooden houses to concrete, have been effective. Selective spraying for the insects has also been key to decreasing the burden of the disease in South America.
PSA ping.
surprised this has not been an issue long before this. chagas has been an illegal alien disease, incurable and here for a long time.
I heard about this back in the mid 90’s no one seemed to care about it back then.
Another reason to put an electrified fence up on the southern border!
Just like AIDS, a politically correct disease that the left was afraid to go for the most effective method of prevention. With AIDs, it was quarantine of infected individuals and those they had sex with. With this, border enforcement would have been the best protection. Protected classes. Ugh.
Do the illegals get the disease in Mexico and travel here or have the bugs come to the U.S. via clothing etc... on the illegal Mexicans?!
That would explain the increased questioning while giving blood recently.
Chagas disease in Texas---wonder if Merck has a vaccine for this? (/snix)
It can also be transmitted in a blood transfusion. I don’t think there is any test now being used to screen blood.
Another big reason to bring back DDT for use in human dwellings.
To make the connection between illegals and Chagas is heartless!!!!
Unremarked also is tuberculosis. Virulent TB is finding its way north as well.
The virulent strain is extremely difficult to cure. sd
These things are the least of the diseases that are coming in on the backs of illegals.
We are going to have an Exodus type plague that hits all of the un-vaccinated children in this country as a result of letting this crap come into the country.
They will truly do a job other Americans wont—kill our kids.
Gee I wonder how it has managed to be transmitted all the way north to Texas...
The bugs are ignoring Ameican laws and crossing the border only when they can attach themselves to a Mexican who is just about to cross the border.
Once the bugs get on this side of the border, do we have to allow in state tuition to its larvae?!
Ask Rick Perry.
Leprosy, brucellosis, tuberculosis, and Entamoeba hystolitica are also increasing as illegal migrants move from across the Rio Grande. Many others.
Changa isn’t an infectious disease {accept through blood transfusions, breast milk, etc)
It’s cause by a parasite associated varity of blood sucking insects.
These insects are moving north due to the warming climate, not because illegal aliens are bringing them.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chagas_disease#Transmission
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