New test OK'd for Chagas

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New test OK'd for Chagas

By Ann McGlynn | Tuesday, December 26, 2006

Are you feeling healthy and well today?

In the past 12 months, have you come into contact with someone else’s blood?Have you ever had Chagas disease?Tucked in among the 49 questions asked of each blood donor at the Mississippi Valley Regional Blood Center is an inquiry about a little-known disease that affects about 11 million people, mostly in Latin America.With the recent approval of a test for the parasitic disease, the question may no longer be necessary as blood centers across the country consider adding the test to the six done on each bag of donated blood: HIV/AIDS, hepatitis B, hepatitis C, syphilis, human T-lymphotropic virus and West Nile virus.“I look at it, particularly in our area, as a preemptive strike,” said Louis Katz, the Mississippi Valley Regional Blood Center’s medical director. “We don’t think we are going to find many (infected) donors initially.”However, as more Hispanic immigrants come to the Quad-City region and are recruited to donate blood, the test could identify more people with the disease, he said.The U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved the first test for Chagas disease last week. It has not yet mandated the test, but that will be considered over the next year, Katz said.A second test, from Abbott Laboratories, is expected within a year, said Louis Kirchhoff, a University of Iowa researcher who developed the Abbott test.According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Chagas is named after Brazilian physician Chagas, who discovered it in 1909. It is caused by a parasite and found mostly in Latin America, although there are confirmed cases in the United States and Canada as well. An estimated 11 million people in Mexico, Central America and South America have the disease.It usually is transmitted by insects, but it also can be transmitted in a blood transfusion or from mother to child.The disease can often go unnoticed. However, during its first phase, some people may experience fever, fatigue, body aches, headache, rash, loss of appetite, diarrhea and vomiting. It also can involve swelling, particularly of the eyelids on the side of the face near the bite wound. During the second phase, Chagas may remain “silent for decades or even for life.” However, some people develop severe heart or intestinal problems. Young children and people with weakened immune systems are especially vulnerable. Thousands die from the disease each year.Kirchhoff’s interest in studying parasites began as a Peace Corps volunteer in Brazil, he said. He still recalls the first time he saw the parasite that causes Chagas disease under a microscope: spring 1973.He is now considered an expert on the ailment. A University of Iowa faculty member, Kirchhoff won an $850,000 federal grant that led to the development of a test for Chagas. He formed a small company to do so; the results of his work have been licensed to Abbott.“I am just fascinated by having the honor of looking at the product of what clearly is the result of millions of years of evolution,” he said.The blood center is working on the information that will be given to donors about the Chagas disease test, as well as the notification of people who may have received a blood transfusion from someone with the disease.Chagas, Katz said, is the first in what he called a second tier of diseases — after the first tier of six now in place — to be considered for widespread testing of the blood supply. He is part of a national effort to research disease-testing candidates, as well as determining whether the benefits of testing for those diseases outweigh the cost.Kirchhoff believes the next disease to be proposed for widespread testing is the one asked about immediately after Chagas disease on the blood center questionnaire.“Have you ever had babesiosis?”Ann McGlynn can be contacted at (563) 383-2336 or amcglynn@....Blood driveThe 14th annual KWQC-TV6 River of Life blood drive will be noon to 7 p.m. Jan. 4. To donate, schedule an appointment by calling (563) 359-5401, Ext, 119, or go to www.bloodcenter.org on the Web.Sites include: 1035 W. Road (CASI), Davenport 5500 Lakeview Parkway, Davenport 4650 38th Ave., Moline 2222 Park Ave., Muscatine, Iowa 555 N. Kellogg St., Galesburg, Ill. 1000 N. Roosevelt Ave., Burlington, Iowa

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