Are we facing another vector born diease in the U.S

[gjonesy]

Apparently we have triatomine bugs living in the southern parts of the US. I have watched documentaries on this particular parasitic organism and frankly its as scary as zika virus. In fact one disturbing side effect of untreated chagas disease is it can destroy your heart to the point that carriers sometimes need a heart transplant to survive.

1. My questions are, what are the risk of exposer?
2.And how often does this go unrecognized and misdiagnosed here in the United States?
http://www.snopes.com/critters/lurkers/kissingbugs.asp
http://www.cdc.gov/parasites/chagas/epi.html
http://www.cdc.gov/parasites/chagas/gen_info/vectors/index.html

 

[jim mcnamara]

http://www.wcchd.org/services/docs/DSHS_Chagas_Disease_Communique_09_15.pdf

This cites incidence of blood transfusions from infected blood donors as something that is now tested for. I cannot find where the CDC has this as a reportable disease so incidence figures are hard to find.

But we don't like speculation here on PF, so here is somne reported information:

It is reportable in Arizona, but unless you live somewhere like that the figures are not necssarily applicable. "that" includes a lot of migrants from Central America as well as a warm climate with very long frost-free periods.

http://www.azcentral.com/story/news...ry-disease-cause-allergic-reactions/11316843/
Cites one case of chaga's disease in Maricopa county AZ, population of 4.09 million - see:
https://suburbanstats.org/population/arizona/how-many-people-live-in-maricopa-county

from http://www.cdc.gov/parasites/chagas/resources/chagasdiseaseintheamericas.pdf we find

Chagas disease in the United States The impact of Chagas disease, once thought to be limited to Latin America (where an estimated 8 million people are infected), has moved to the United States, through immigration of persons from Chagas–endemic areas of Mexico, Central America, and South America. The estimated number of infected persons living in the United States is 300,000 or more, based on estimated disease rates by country of origin. The parasite has long been recognized also to occur in local bugs and mammals in the southern regions of the United States, and there have been a few reported cases of local transmission in humans.

Soo, the US population clock site right now has 323178244 as the US population.

(300000 / 323178244) * 100 = .093% about

Most of the infected people are not originally from the US. And since the infection appears to be 'hard to diagnose or asymptomatic' this is just an estimate.
Notice 300000 is a derived number not a reported one.