Third World Parasite Attacking Americans
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There are literally millions of diseases out there that can make you very sick, and even kill you. Fortunately, many of them are resident in third world countries, not the United States. Unfortunately, from time to time, one of these foreign bugs makes it to America, and that’s when the troubles begin.
A little-known parasitic disease from Latin America costs the US economy $900 million a year, the New York Times reports, even though you’ve probably never heard of Chagas disease. To put the figure in perspective, the much more publicized Lyme disease costs the US about $2.5 billion, a study reported. And worldwide, Chagas costs some $7 billion—more than cervical cancer or cholera. Chagas, spread by the “kissing bug,” is widespread between Mexico and Argentina, and the bugs have appeared in the southern US. As NPR notes, about 300,000 Americans carry the bug; most are Texans.
Some 10 million people across the globe may have the disease, including some Latin American emigrants to the US, Canada, and Spain, among other European countries. Costs in the study were associated with the health care involved and the number of lost healthy years. Researchers hope that emphasizing the economic impact of Chagas will encourage more work on vaccines.
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Another bullet point to add to my long list of reasons for ending the illegal invasion & occupation by tens of millions of foreigners that have crossed America’s southern border.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chagas_disease
Thanks Marsha. We just did a quick aggregate as opposed to an in-depth piece, so your information is most helpful.
I found it a little bit offputting that there were no details about the disease itself in the above, so I looked it up in Wikipedia:
The human disease occurs in two stages: an acute stage, which occurs shortly after an initial infection, and a chronic stage that develops over many years.
The acute phase lasts for the first few weeks or months of infection. It usually occurs unnoticed because it is symptom-free or exhibits only mild symptoms that are not unique to Chagas disease. These can include fever, fatigue, body aches, headache, rash, loss of appetite, diarrhea, and vomiting. The signs on physical examination can include mild enlargement of the liver or spleen, swollen glands, and local swelling (a chagoma) where the parasite entered the body.[7]
The most recognized marker of acute Chagas disease is called Romaña’s sign, which includes swelling of the eyelids on the side of the face near the bite wound or where the bug feces were deposited or accidentally rubbed into the eye. Rarely, young children, or adults may die from the acute disease due to severe inflammation/infection of the heart muscle (myocarditis) or brain (meningoencephalitis).[7] The acute phase also can be severe in people with weakened immune systems.
rather than go through and delete all of the reference numbers, I left them. They are listed in the Wikipedia article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chagas_disease
I’m sorry, I guess I’m just a bit anal 🙂