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Chagas Disease

Chagas Disease

HOW IS IT CAUSED? Chagas disease is caused by a parasite within an insect. The insects or beetles called “kissing bugs,” live in the cracks and walls of mud and straw houses. Mud and straw houses are common in poorer areas in the cities and in rural communities in many South American countries. The bug carrying the parasite lives in the cracks of these structures. At night, the bugs bite and also leave their excrement near the bite site. That is how the parasite is released that can get into peoples’ bodies and infect them. WHO GETS IT? It is estimated that 11 million people have Chagas. and about 50,000 people each year will die from Chagas. Most of these people live in Central and South America. Surprisingly, nine cases of Chagas were reported in the southern United States last year, causing the Center for Disease Control to have one of its departments focus on it. It is hard to diagnose Chagas disease. It may first feel like the...

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Summary of: Tropical Diseases Can Make People Very Sick

Summarized from www.thelancet.com Vol. 381 Jan. 5, 2013/ John Morris reports/WHO Meeting led by Dr. Anne Moore, KFWH Advisor New WHO Plan Targets the Demise of Sleeping Sickness Tropical diseases can make people very sick and sometimes kill the people who become infected. At the World Health Organization (WHO) at the United Nations, doctors and scientists are working hard to do something about this. They are figuring out how to end tropical diseases to save lives. One of the diseases they studied at their meeting in December 2012, is “sleeping sickness.” Most people who get sleeping sickness live in west and central Africa, in countries such as The Democratic Republic of The Congo. African animals can also become infected.  Sleeping sickness can damage the nervous system and harm people’s hearts. How does someone get this disease? Sleeping sickness comes from a tse tse fly bite. The tse tse fly has a parasite -an organism that lives inside the fly- that is dangerous to humans. When someone is bitten, the parasite from the fly goes into that person’s bloodstream and makes...

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