Chagas disease

[Guest guest]

Hi Saul,

Would Ozone help with this type of disease?

Latin immigrants raise parasite risk

By Joyce Price

THE WASHINGTON TIMES

http://www.washtimes.com/national/20040205-115036-7708r.htm

The rising migration of Latin people to the United States increases

the potential number of cases of a deadly parasitic infectious disease,

common in the Southern Hemisphere, that is spread by blood transfusions.

Seven persons are known to have been infected with the largely

incurable illness, known as , through blood transfusions in the United

States and Canada since 1986, five of them in this country

The American Red Cross estimates that, nationally, the risk of a

blood donor having antibodies to Chagas or being infected with the

disease is 1 in 25,000. The same risk is 1 in 5,400 in Los Angeles and 1

in 9,000 in Miami.

Dr. Louis V. Kirchhoff, a professor at the University of Iowa's

medical school, and a Chagas specialist, said the risk of contracting

the disease is growing fast because of immigration. He noted that U.S.

Census data show that net immigration from Mexico alone is about 1,000

people a day, and that as many as 10 percent are probably infected.

The Red Cross plans to begin screening blood donors for Chagas

disease when a suitable test is found. " The best-case scenario is that

this will take a couple of years " to find a test that the U.S. Food and

Drug Administration will approve, said Red Cross spokesman Leiby.

" An estimated 15 million South Americans [plus Mexicans and Central

Americans] are suffering from Chagas disease. I'm amazed more cases have

not turned up in our blood supply, " said Dr. Arthur C. Aufderheide of

the University of Minnesota School of Medicine in Duluth during a

telephone interview.

Mr. Leiby said the five cases in which people were infected through

the U.S. blood supply ?? most recently in 2002 in Rhode Island and in

1999 in Miami ?? " are just the cases we know about. " Some of those

people have died.

" There have probably been more cases that have not been reported or

were not recognized, " he said.

In fact, the Red Cross estimates that nationwide as many as 618

blood donations yearly could contain Chagas antibodies, thus be

" potentially infectious, " said Mr. Leiby.

Chagas is a disease that causes a high fever, enlarged lymph nodes

and can permanently damage vital organs, most often the heart.

Especially threatening, said Dr. Aufderheide, is the fact that

people " can live for decades " with a chronic form of Chagas.

During this phase, he said, victims may look and feel all right.

" And they think they are fit to donate blood, " when they really aren't.

" We need to have a test " to screen blood for Chagas, said Dr. Hira

Nakhasi, director of transfusion-transmitted diseases at the U.S. Food

and Drug Administration.

Blood transfusions are just one of the ways in which Chagas is

transmitted, Mr. Leiby said. It's also spread through the feces of a

family of blood-sucking insects found in this country, as well as

through mother-to child infection and organ transplants.

Chagas disease is caused by the trypanosome cruzi, a parasite,

which gets into a victim's bloodstream, burrows into his tissue and

multiplies.

The Reduviid family of insects, which is native to the United

States, spreads Chagas. " They are about the size of a cockroach, 1 to 2

inches long, and they feed on blood, " Mr. Leiby said.

He noted that an American infant was bitten and infected with

Chagas several years ago. " It's known the child was infected from a bug

bite, because the mother found the bug in the baby's crib, " the Red

Cross spokesman said.

The good news, Mr. Leiby said, is that the child survived.

" Treatment is partially effective, if it's begun early enough. "