Posted on 11/06/2007 5:49:39 PM PST by television is just wrong
A Los Angeles County hospital has opened the first clinic in the country devoted to studying and treating Chagas disease, a deadly parasitic illness that has long been the leading cause of heart failure in Latin America and is now being seen in immigrant communities in the United States. Unless Chagas is treated early, little can be done to halt its advance. Yet because 10 to 20 years can pass before heart or gastrointestinal complications develop, many people don't realize they're infected with what has been called a silent killer. "We really, really need to become more aware of the potential of this disease in our Latin American population because the long-term outcome is pretty horrific," said Dr. Sheba Meymandi, director of the new center at Olive View-UCLA Medical Center. "If we can block the progression to full-blown Chagas disease and heart failure, we'd be doing a huge service." Like Lyme disease or malaria, Chagas is a vector-borne illness, meaning that it is transmitted by insects, not person-to-person contact. For Chagas, the insect is a winged, blood-sucking creature commonly called a conenose, or kissing bug, because it feeds at night, often on uncovered faces. An estimated 8 million to 11 million people in Central and South America and Mexico are infected, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Chagas is most common in poor, rural areas. The parasitic illness can also pass from mother to child at birth and through blood or organ transfusions, which have become the main source of infection in Latin American cities. In December, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved a test for screening the blood supply by testing for antibodies to the parasite.
(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...
and that is one nasty bug. must deliver one nasty bite.
Having watched some episodes of Dirty Jobs, there are Americans who will do that...and more.
I think the headline would have been just as good without the last word.
DDT.......NOW!..........
I dunno, how tall is Hillary!?......
lol, they are her cousins.
Are you insulting the Blood Sucking Conenose?
No, heaven forbid. It must have some practical use, else God would not have created it!.......
Nah, can’t think of any practical reason this thing is around except to scare people. Kill them all!
The Chagas’ disease protozoan, Trypanosoma cruzi, that is transmitted by conenose bugs is not directly transmitted during feeding but excreted in their feces. If the fecal material is scratched into the bite or onto mucous membranes, it can enter the human body; therefore, always disinfect the bite site with iodine to prevent infection, and then wash it to remove fecal material. Because Latin American species are more likely to defecate immediately after feeding than are species found in the United States, protozoan transmission is more likely in Latin America. Immediate or acute symptoms of this disease include swelling of the face, high or moderate fever that develops about 2 weeks after the victim is bitten, swelling of other body areas, and sometimes nervous system disorders. If the patient recovers, chronic infection becomes established and may result in cardiac damage or other serious disorders and even death.
Cite:
http://www.ipm.ucdavis.edu/PMG/PESTNOTES/pn7455.html
I came across this lovely information about 5 years ago. I posted it on FR and got very little response.
Another present from our South American/mexican neighbors.
I think we should take all of the pro amnesty folks and force them to hang out with people who have this parasite, and ones who have TB, or other infectious diseases. Since they are putting us all at risk, I think it's only fair that they suffer right along with us 'peons!'
My big beef with the Amnesty crowd is they cannot wrap their minds around the national security need to keep track of who immigrates to the US. There really are health and security reasons for the legal immigration process, but the Amnesty-At-All-Cost folks never seem to “get it.”
Maybe it was some other type of lamp. Gas lamps didn't show up until the 19th century.
Reminds me of that Socialist Emma Lazarus (she who’s poem is on that plaque on the Statue of Liberty). She went over to “help” the oppressed in Eastern Europe only to contract a contagious disease leading to her early demise.
Hillary, we need you to get down to Chiapas with your future voters, spend nights in their lodgings and sleep on your back while snoring.
The study has already been done. I just wonder how much the grant is worth.
Just the tip of the ice berg with our uncontrolled borders thanks tot he criminal actions - or inactions in Congress and the White House on illegal invaders.
Expect a lot more of these “exotic” diseases, many of which have horrible manifestations and many of which we have little or control over.
Many tropical pathogens are not well studied.
There's a joke in here somewhere.
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