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Chagas, a tropical disease spread by insects, is causing some fresh concern following an editorial—published earlier this week in a medical journal—that called it "the new AIDS of the Americas." More than 8 million people have been infected by Chagas, most of them in Latin and Central America. But more than 300,000 live in the United States. The editorial, published by the Public Library of Science's Neglected Tropical Diseases, said the spread of the disease is reminiscent of the early years of HIV. "There are a number of striking similarities between people living with Chagas disease and people living with...

A simple and cheap device to diagnose sleeping sickness is a step closer according to scientists in Sweden.Human African trypanosomiasis, or sleeping sickness, is caused by parasites in the blood called trypanosomes. The disease is transmitted by tsetse flies and is fatal is left untreated. Standard diagnosis is done by looking for the parasites in blood samples using a microscope. However, the concentration of parasites is often very low, so they need to be separated from the red blood cells before analysis. Many separation methods have been developed, but they are expensive and too complex to use in remote areas where...

Last month, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation donated $19 million to the Drugs for Neglected Diseases Initiative to further one of its goals: finding a new drug for African sleeping sickness. Not that $19 million will come close to doing that. Even if a miracle cure is found, it will take lab work and clinical trials that could easily cost $100 million to prove it is really a miracle and not the Vioxx of the African savannah. But the gift spotlights just how tricky the search for new treatments can be when the disease is fearsome but nearly forgotten...

Not allowed to post articles from the El Paso Times... All I can do is give you the link.