World Chagas Disease Day is marked on April 14 to increase awareness about the potentially life-threatening infectious disease that affects around seven million people worldwide.
Chagas disease, also known as American trypanosomiasis, is caused by the parasite Trypanosoma cruzi. The parasite usually spreads through triatomine bugs, or “kissing bugs,” when they swallow blood from an infected animal.
The disease was earlier confined to continental rural areas of the Region of the Americas but it is now seen in the U.S., Canada and many of the European, African, Eastern Mediterranean and Western Pacific countries.
If failed to identify early, the disease can cause serious problems in the heart and digestive systems and can turn fatal. It is estimated that around 10,000 people die every year worldwide from the disease.
Transmission:
- Through food or beverages contaminated with T. cruzi
- From infected mother to newborn during pregnancy and childbirth
- Blood transfusion or an organ transplant from an infected person
- Accidental exposures while working in labs
- From infected wild animals, such as raccoons and opossums
Early signs of the silent disease
Chagas disease is also known as a silent or silenced disease as its symptoms are absent or mild in the initial acute phase of the infection that lasts for about two months.
In the acute stage, patients may suffer mild symptoms such as:
- Fever and fatigue
- Rash
- Body pain and headaches
- Eyelid swelling, swollen glands
- Loss of appetite
- Nausea, diarrhea or vomiting
- Enlargement of liver or spleen
Most of these symptoms usually go away on their own. But if left untreated, the infection advances to the chronic stage.
Symptoms in the chronic stage include cardiac complications such as irregular heartbeat, heart failure and cardiac arrest. Patients also develop gastrointestinal complications such as difficulty in swallowing, stomach pain or constipation due to an enlarged esophagus or colon.
Treatment
The disease is usually treated with benznidazole or…
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