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Another Deadly Disease Invades With Illegals
‘Latin American nemesis’ follows ‘unaccompanied minors’
WND
NEW YORK – The Chagas virus is a potentially lethal disease that international health authorities virtually universally agree has been brought to the United States in the flood of “unaccompanied minors” this year.
The United Nations World Health Organization describes Chagas disease as a “potentially life-threatening illness caused by the protozoan parasite, Trypanosoma cruzi (T. cruzi).”
“It is found mainly in endemic areas of 21 Latin American countries,” WHO says, “where it is mostly vector-borne transmitted to humans by contact with faeces of triatomine bugs, known as ‘kissing bugs,’ among other names, depending on the geographical area.”
A 2007 report titled “Chagas Disease: A Latin American Nemesis,” prepared by the Institute for One World Health under a grant donated by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, documented that Chagas disease “is an insidious, potentially fatal parasitic disease that is widespread in Latin America affection 10-14 million or more.”
The 2007 reports noted Chagas “is transmitted primarily by a few species of a blood-feeding triatomine insect known as Vinchuca, the ‘kissing’ or ‘assassin’ bug.”
The report further documented that in Latin America, more DALYs (Disability Adjusted Life Years) are lost to Chagas disease than to meningitis, sexually transmitted diseases, hepatitis B and C, and malaria, with only HIV, diarrheal diseases and tuberculosis higher.
The 2007 report argued that in Latin America, the estimate of between 10 to 14 million infected with Chagas disease is low, with 16 to 18 million infected often reported. About 30 percent of infected individuals are expected to have or develop cardiac, peripheral nervous system or digestive system complications within 10 to 30 years after infection, with some expected to suffer sudden cardiac death.
Symptoms and conditions
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s website explains that Chagas disease has an acute and a chronic phase that, if untreated, lasts a lifetime.
Reposted with permission
