Transplant patient, illegal alien, dies. Unfortunate.
She could have been one of these transplant patients who died because of a disease dragged over the border by one of her countrymen.
Rare Disease Reported in Transplants
Jul 27 2:16 PM US/Eastern
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By MIKE STOBBE
AP Medical Writer
ATLANTA
Two U.S. heart transplant patients who died earlier this year had
contracted a parasitic tropical disease from their new organs, health
officials reported Thursday.
The two California men are the fourth and fifth U.S. patients believed
to have been infected with Chagas' disease through organ transplants,
according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Organ donors are screened for Chagas' in South America, where the
disease is much more common. No screening test for Chagas' is licensed
in the United States.
The two men, ages 64 and 73, died at separate Los Angeles hospitals
after being treated with Chagas'-fighting drugs from a special CDC
stockpile of medicines not available in this country.
The infected organs came from one person born in Central America and
another who had traveled to Mexico, the CDC reported.
One of the transplant patients died of something other than Chagas'
disease, CDC officials said. No autopsy was done on the second man, so
the role of Chagas' in his death is not known, said Heather Kun, a CDC
epidemiologist who led the investigation.
Chagas' disease can cause high fever, swelling, enlargement of the
spleen, liver and lymph nodes, and inflammation of the heart.
Most people infected do not get sick, but the disease can be fatal in
some cases and can be especially dangerous to people with suppressed
immune systems. Transplant patients receive immune-suppressing drugs
to prevent organ rejection.
"We think physicians need to look out for this" in patients taking
medication that suppresses the immune system, said Dr. Anne Moore, a
CDC epidemiologist.
In 2001, the CDC reported three cases of Chagas' in three U.S. women
who had received organs from an immigrant from Central America.
Doctors presumed the donor was infected, but no specimens were
available for testing.
Chagas' is spread by reduviid bugs, which live in the cracks and holes
of substandard housing. They are called "kissing bugs" because they
often bite people in the face. The bugs' feces contain a single-celled
parasite that can get pushed beneath the skin when people scratch
themselves or rub their eyes.
About 12 million people in Central and South America are infected with
Chagas', but only 100,000 U.S. residents have it, according to rough
estimates.
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Thank you for your diligence. I believe illegals have been taking us to the cleaners. I was in a situation where my son needed emergency dental work, our dentist did not have hours and I went to a children's clinic. It was packed, I sat for 3 hours watching Mexican T.V., I was one of the very, very few who actually spoke english, I sat right next to the desk and watched one by one, as everybody but me used a medicaid card while I had to pay for services.