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<\/p>\n Email Link<\/p>\n \n Chagas disease, a potentially deadly condition caused by a parasite carried by insects called kissing bugs, should now be considered endemic in the United States, experts say \u2013 and without recognition that it\u2019s a constant presence in some parts of the country, more people will suffer unnecessarily.\n <\/p>\n \n A report<\/a> on the topic was published last week in the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention\u2019s journal Emerging Infectious Diseases, and the authors say they hope that growing global attention on the new paper means Chagas could finally get the surveillance, prevention and testing efforts and research funding it deserves in the United States.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cWe\u2019ve been waiting forever; all of us Chagas people have been waiting for people to recognize this disease is in our communities,\u201d said Dr. Norman Beatty, coauthor of the report and a clinical associate professor<\/a> at the University of Florida College of Medicine\u2019s Division of Infectious Diseases & Global Medicine who has studied Chagas for the past decade.\n <\/p>\n \n The World Health Organization<\/a> considers Chagas a neglected tropical disease<\/a>, and the Pan American Health Organization<\/a> says it is endemic \u2013 with a constant presence or usual prevalence \u2013 in 21 other countries in the Americas, not including the United States. Chagas is one of the leading causes of heart disease in Latin America, and it causes more disability than other insect-borne infections, even more than malaria and Zika, studies show<\/a>.\n <\/p>\n \n Chagas largely spreads when triatomine bugs, commonly known as kissing bugs, bite a human while they\u2019re sleeping. The bug defecates in that bite or on a person\u2019s face, and the person unwittingly wipes the feces into their eyes, nose or mouth. The feces can carry a parasite, Trypanosoma cruzi, that causes the disease.\n <\/p>\n \n Chagas can also spread<\/a> through contaminated food or blood, organ transplants and pregnancy.\n <\/p>\n \n Early symptoms can include fever, body aches, headaches, rash, vomiting and tiredness. They may last weeks or even months after initial infection.\n <\/p>\n \n According to the CDC, about 20% to 30% of people who\u2019ve been infected develop more serious problems like long-term digestive and nervous system conditions, heart failure<\/a>, stroke or death.\n <\/p>\n \n If it\u2019s caught early, the disease can be cured with benznidazole or nifurtimox, medicines that kill the parasite. But the drugs become less effective the longer a person has been infected, and most people remain unaware of the disease. Many doctors don\u2019t think to look for it in patients in the US, the new report noted.\n <\/p>\n \n In fact, some people who are infected find out some time later, when they donate blood, since the US has been testing its blood supply for Chagas since 2007.\n <\/p>\n
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