Chagas Disease
Chagas (pronounced SHA-gus) disease is a potentially life-threatening illness that affects 18 to 20 million people in Latin America.
Named after the Brazilian physician Carlos Chagas, who discovered it in 1909, Chagas disease is caused by the parasite Trypanosoma cruzi, and transmitted to animals and people primarily by bites from blood-sucking insects, including the vinchuca, commonly known as the “kissing” or “assassin” bug.
Though millions are affected by Chagas, it has long been considered a disease of the rural poor, whose homes are often infested with vinchucas. As such, there has been little financial incentive for pharmaceutical companies to research and develop drugs to treat it.
The disease
Chagas has two pronounced stages.
During the first, or acute stage, symptoms can include fever, fatigue, aches, rash, loss of appetite, diarrhea, vomiting and swelling of the eyelids on the side of the face near the bite wound. Symptoms usually fade within a few weeks or months, even without treatment. Although the symptoms may go away, the infection, if untreated, persists.
Treatment options for acute Chagas are few and have serious side effects. Many patients who have been successfully treated risk re-infection on return to the environment where they contracted the disease.
During the chronic phase, the infection may remain silent for decades or even for life. However, as the parasites burrow into the heart muscles and other organs, victims can develop serious heart trouble which often ends in death.
There is currently no known cure for chronic Chagas disease.
Prevention
The obvious solution is to rid homes of the vinchuca bug through regular extermination campaigns and ideally, improved construction techniques to build vinchuca-proof homes. However, this is a long-term goal involving large numbers of dwellings and a great financial investment in some of the most remote parts of the world.
One short-term but highly effective option is to distribute insecticide-treated bed nets to those at risk. As vinchucas hide from daylight and feed at night, bed nets offer protection when it is most critical, at night while families sleep. Bed nets are inexpensive, compact and lightweight, making them easy to transport to rural areas. They are effective for up to three years and are far less toxic to people and animals than the chemicals typically used to exterminate vinchuca infestations.
In November 2007, MotoMedics International began distributing bed nets to a community in the province of Santiago del Estero, Argentina, as part of a pilot project. Bed nets are not the end-all solution, but they are currently the most cost-effective way to save lives.
A donation of just $10 can pay for the purchase and delivery of a bed net to a remote community in Argentina. Won’t you please help?
