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Fellow blogger, Yianni Garcia (a.k.a., the “Social Media Guy“) recently asked me to do my part to raise awareness about a horrible, but little known illness called “Chagas disease.” Knowing nothing about it before I started researching for this post, it appears to be, sadly, yet another disease of the poor that will be largely ignored until it migrates its way into the lives of the wealthy.

Chagas disease exists primarily in Latin America, where it has infected an estimated 16 million people and causes about 50,000 deaths each year, according to the NY Times. There is no vaccine, and response to treatment decreases with age.

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The disease was first identified in 1909 by a Brazilian doctor named Carlos Chagas, and for the most of modern history it has been a predominantly rural affliction. Globalization, however, is bringing the disease into larger urban areas.

The parasitic infection usually is transmitted through the bite of the mosquito-like insect pictured below. The otherwise harmless insect lives in poor housing conditions, such as the cracks and holes of trodden earth floors, adobe walls and thatched roofs, where it bites people, often on the face, while they sleep, giving it the name the “kissing bug.” Occasionally, Chagas’ is transmitted through infected food sources, blood transfusions, organ transplants and from mother to child at birth. Source

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According to Doctors Without Borders,

Chagas is a “forgotten” disease. Why? Because it is the illness of the poor people. Chagas is practically “invisible” because in most cases its effects are only manifested up to ten years after infection by the transmitting insect, which makes it difficult for the health staff to diagnose the disease.

On the other hand, Chagas has been very much neglected by the pharmaceutical industry. No new medication has been developed in the last thirty years. Chagas patients must take obsolete, highly ineffective treatment with many side effects.

There unfortunately appear to be very few resources or services dedicated to help the victims of this horrible disease. But to read more about Chagas disease or the efforts of Doctors Without Borders to fight the illness, click here.

Thanks for the education, Yianni!

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