Chagas Disease Analysis

About 1,500 cases of malaria are diagnosed in the United States annually, mostly in returned travelers” (Global Health - Division of Parasitic Diseases , 2010). Malaria risk is not distributed homogeneously throughout all countries. Some destinations have malaria transmission occurring throughout the whole country, while in others it occurs in defined pockets so the traveler should be weary of areas whose climate is conducive to mosquitoes.

found in Florida, the Center for Disease Control and Prevention has published to traveler advisor that

Out of the 11 cilantro farms investigated in Puebla, Mexico’s 4th largest state, eight farms were deemed unsafe, with five of those eight farms found to be linked to a series of recurrent outbreaks of the gastric disease cyclosporiasis in the United States since 2012. While authorities remain unsure, they think shipments of cilantro from Puebla are responsible for a current outbreak in Texas, which has already left 200 people ill.

Besides Mexico, MSF has another important Chagas program in the regions of Aiquile, Omereque, and Pasorapa in Bolivia. A province of one of these regions in the year 2009 was estimated to have a disease prevalence as high as 40%. Through this program, MSF worked with community clinics and health center to diagnosed and treat patients age 1 to 60 (MSF, 2016). Through the diagnosis in programs like the ones in Bolivia and Mexico, a more accurate view on the number of people who actually suffer from Chagas disease and determine the different groups that suffer from this disease and who require different types of treatment. By having current information of the prevalence of this disease and having a greater demand on medication and on new treatment forms, it would break the vicious cycle, and will require pharmaceutical companies to actually spend in research and

Coccidiodes immitis and c. posadasii are the two types of fungi that can afflict people with Valley fever. These two fungi are found in Texas, New Mexico, Utah, Nevada, Arizona, and California with the latter two having the highest endemic areas within the United States. Below the states, Coccidioidomycosis is found in parts of Mexico, Brazil, and Argentina.1 A few cases have been found abroad, however, they are attributed to travel to places where the fungus is found.2 The first case of Valley Fever was recognized in in Argentina in 1892 and has been slowly increasing in transmission over the past few years.2 The fungus itself grows in the top 2-8 inches of arid soil where it releases, “arthroconidia, highly infectious propagules that can be disrupted from the ground and inhaled, where they can produce acute pulmonary infection in humans and many mammals.”3 These spores can also grow into spherules inside the body, wherein reaching a large enough size can burst and release endospores to other organs.1 Although person-to-person transfer is not unheard of, it is extremely rare and can occur through organ transplants if previously infected or inhaling spores from a wound infected with the two types of Coccidoides.1 When the disease is transmitted, a myriad of signs and symptoms are

Chagas disease is an illness caused by the parasite Trypanosoma cruzi. This parasite infects triatomine bugs, which are common in Mexico, Central America, and South America. These bugs spread the disease to humans through contact with their feces. This may be through bites from the bugs, or the parasite can enter the body through mucous membranes or small cuts in the skin.

Hello Nathan, I enjoyed your post. Chagas is a major disease and I must say it will be interesting to see how the house projects research goes. It is apparent that this aid the Latin America countries in need while including their socio-economical status. Use resources indigoes to the population of countries at hand. It is apparent that close living quarters within humans to humans such as over crowding, and close living of humans to animals aids not just Chagas disease but many. Chagas disease is a disease that can be stopped but is an extremely challenging challenge.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), there are approximately 40 known strains that infect 79 million Americans--mostly without any sign of symptoms.(3)

The disease was not re cognized as a major problem until the 1960s when the World Health Organization Expert Committee estimated that 7 million people from all countries in Latin America were infected. The disease continued to spread. “Between 1980 to 1985 there were 17.4 million people that were infected in 18 endemic countries of Latin America (Chagas disease 2010).” The number of people that are infected yearly has dropped significantly since the 1980s. “In 2005 only 7.7 million individuals of Latin America were infected with Chagas disease (Chagas disease

Throughout the semester, we carried out a variety of chemical experiments, which included a computer practical, prelab preparation, laboratory reports there were workshops and Cerego an online assignment resource. The combination of these formed our Portfolio assessment.

The main focus of the presentation was the threat of Aedes Aegypti borne diseases which is a specie of mosquito. Professor Beaty has studied the Aedes Aegypti for twenty years in Mexico, and is concerned with the potential threat of a Super Nidus due to domestication of the Aedes Aegypti and urbanization of arboviruses. Although the future he pictured seemed bleak, he presented research how to combat the issue. Some people think that creating vaccines is the answer but his research suggests the people should control the vector, or the mosquito in this case. The topic was related to the science of biology since it touched on the domestication of the Aedes Aegypti. Many pesticides can no longer harm the species due to genetic drift and mutation,

The WHO indicated that up to 24% of total deaths in Peru are caused by communicable diseases. Malaria is one notable risk, as up to 1.2 million Peruvians are at a high risk for malaria transmission. It is reported that 87,669 cases of malaria in Peru during 2005 dropped to 29,257 in 2010. Fortunately, the number of cases have continued to dwindle as more vaccination programs are introduced. On the other hand, Peru has also experienced a dengue epidemic in June 2011. The number of cases significantly increased from 3,695 during 2006 to 27,404 cases in 2011. In recent years, however, active prevention by Peru’s Ministry of Health has minimized the number of cases for dengue fever. However, the World Health Organization still regard Peru as a high-risk country for dengue fever, as many travelers report their cause of fevers were dengue. Other communicable diseases that pose a low level of threat in Peru are yellow fever, rubella, measles. Vaccination programs like “the Accelerated Plan against Yellow Fever” have been extremely helpful in reducing Peruvians’ communicable disease

Kuru is an infectious disease that attacks the central and peripheral nervous system. The pathogen itself is a prion protein, which is found commonly throughout the body and is usually anchored to the cell membrane of cells, with the highest concentration in the nervous system. These proteins are made from amino acids and are coiled into certain structures depending on their job. These harmless proteins only become a problem when they change their structure, whether by infection or mutation, and they become the template to other new prions and cause present prions to restructure themselves into the abnormal.

The case study, The Case of Tropical Disease and Its Treatment: Science, Society, and Economy explores the Chagas disease (diagnosis) and a possible alternative treatment. This essay will focus on the Chagas disease in depth covering concepts including background, treatment and alternative solutions/treatment. The objective of this essay is to identify diseases endemic to South America (Costa Rica), examine the Chagas disease (signs and symptoms, treatment, and control) and alternative treatment solutions, and formulate an implementation plan to control the Chagas disease throughout South America.

Foreign animal disease, or transboundary animal diseases, has become a concern worldwide as international trades increase and foreign investment restrictions loosen in the recent decades. Transboundary animal diseases, defined as “those that are of significant economic, trade and/or food security importance for a considerable number of countries; which can easily spread to other countries and reach epidemic proportions; and where control/management, including exclusion, requires cooperation between several countries,” can be difficult to eliminate from a country once an outbreak occurred and thus require adequate border surveillance and strict import controls to prevent the spread of the disease.3