Chagas Disease Becoming Increasingly Urbanized As Demographics, Disease Ecology Change
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According to WHO, Chagas disease is one of the worlds 13 most neglected tropical diseases, the third most serious infectious disease in Latin America, after HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis, and the parasitic infection with the highest morbidity and greatest socioeconomic impact in the region. The only country in Latin America to be declared free of the insect that spreads the disease, in mid- 2012, is Uruguay.
However, all statistics on the disease are approximate, because many cases are never diagnosed, Belkisyolé Alarcón de Nola, the director of immunology at Venezuelas Institute of Tropical Medicine (IMT), told Tierramérica. People whose infection goes undiagnosed either do not develop symptoms, or the symptoms are attributed to other illnesses. They may die decades later of heart failure or a stroke that is never linked to Chagas disease, explained Nola, a medical doctor and researcher who coordinates the follow-up of Chagas patients in Venezuela. oday, the image of Chagas disease as a rural disease of the poor has been dispelled, she said. We can have cases at any altitude, latitude or stratum, and we need to change the way we confront its vectors.
Urban sprawl has invaded the natural habitat of the diseases vectors, said Nola. Caracas, located in a valley at an altitude of 1,000 meters, has these sort of green fingers that extend into it, and these are the areas that are most accessible for the vectors to reach peoples homes, she explained. Logging and slashing and burning of forests have left little food for the chipos, as Triatoma infestans, the insect that spreads the disease, is commonly known in Venezuela. It goes by various names in different countries of the region, including vinchuca, chirimacha and chichi, and is referred to as the kissing bug in English.
We have vectors everywhere and even more so with climate change, because the warmer the earth becomes, the greater the reproduction of the insects, said Nola.
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http://www.tierramerica.info/nota.php?lang=eng&idnews=4147