Chagas Disease: A New Global Pandemic?

Researchers are warning that the little-known Chagas Disease could pose a
threat similar to other global pandemics.

Chagas Disease, which experts have described as the "new AIDS of the
Americas,"<http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-2151815/Chagas-disease-New-AIDS-Americas-cause-victims-hearts-explode.html>is
a parasitic illness that is most commonly transmitted by the so-called
"kissing bugs," a subfamily of blood-sucking insects, through the parasite
called *Trypanosoma cruzi*. Symptoms of the disease range from those
similar to those of the flu in the acute stage to major problems with the
nervous, digestive and cardiovascular systems in later stages.

Once infected, the disease can go unnoticed for years, or even decades and
can cause undetected damage to the heart, intestines and esophagus.
Cardiomyopathy
and arrhythmias caused by the disease can eventually be
fatal<http://www.mnn.com/health/fitness-well-being/stories/chagas-disease-called-the-new-hivaids-of-the-americas>
.

About a quarter of the people who contract Chagas develop enlarged heart or
intestines that can burst causing sudden death.

The disease is mainly concentrated in Latin American countries with most
cases coming from Bolivia, Mexico, Colombia and Central America. However,
there are 30,000 people in the U.S. who suffer from the disease, with many
cases popping up in southern Texas.

"The infection affects up to 20 million people in Mexico, Central America,
and South America, making Chagas disease the highest impact infectious
disease in Latin America," The Chagas Foudnation reported. "In addition to
being a disease of poverty, Chagas disease is also poverty-promoting in
striking hardest in young adults."

While there are medication available to combat the disease, they are not
widely available in some Latin American nations and little research has
been spent on finding new treatments.

The disease is named after Brazilian doctor Carlos Ribeiro Justiniano
Chagas, who first discovered the disease in 1909.

Researchers from the University of Maryland believe that Charles Darwin
contracted the disease during his five-year trip around the globe on the
HMS Beagle. Darwin wrote about being bitten by a "wingless black bug"
during his travels in South America and researchers attribute his death
from heart failure to Chagas disease.


Deu 28:59<http://www.blueletterbible.org/Bible.cfm?b=Deu&c=28&t=KJV#comm/59>
 Then the LORD will make thy plagues wonderful, and the plagues of thy
seed, [even] great plagues, and of long continuance, and sore sicknesses,
and of long continuance.
Deu 28:60<http://www.blueletterbible.org/Bible.cfm?b=Deu&c=28&t=KJV#comm/60>
 Moreover he will bring upon thee all the diseases of Egypt, which thou
wast afraid of; and they shall cleave unto thee.
Deu 28:61<http://www.blueletterbible.org/Bible.cfm?b=Deu&c=28&t=KJV#comm/61>
 Also every sickness, and every plague, which [is] not written in the book
of this law, them will the LORD bring upon thee, until thou be destroyed.