Chagas disease occurs in two stages. The severity and course of infection might be different in people infected at different times in life and in different ways. The first stage is the acute stage, which is characterized by the presence of chagomas. This stage lasts for the first few weeks or months of infection. It usually goes unnoticed because it is either asymptomatic, or the infected only exhibit signs/symptoms that are not entirely unique to the disease. This includes headaches, rash (chagomas), loss of appetite, fever, fatigue, body aches. The signs on physical examination may include mild hepatomegaly or splenomegaly and swollen glands. The most recognized marker of acute Chagas disease is called Romana’s sign, which refers to the swelling of the eyelids on the side of the face nearest the initial infection area (CDC, 2013). Even if these symptoms do occur, they usually fade away on their own, which is why the infection usually persists. If left untreated and/or unnoticed, the infected will end up in the chronic stage of the disease. In this stage, the infection may continue to remain silent for decades, or even throughout the entire life. 30% of infected in this stage will develop cardiac complications (cardiomyopathy, heart failure, cardiac arrest) or intestinal complications (megaesophagus, megacolon) (CDC, 2013). For most patients who develop a cardiac complication, it is too late and there is no treatment besides symptomatic.
Chagas disease can be diagnosed by
The working diagnosis is that this patient is suffering from Angioedema as a result of Anaphylaxis and developing Urticaria. Angioedema is the swelling of deep layers of the skin due the accumulation of fluid, symptoms of Angioedema include swelling of the eyes, lips, hands and feet.
The symptoms from above must be experienced for a month or more before diagnosis of
Discovered in 1909 by Carlos Chagas, Chagas disease, or American trypanosomiasis, affects an estimated 8 million individuals annually according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The number of individuals affected by this disease annually makes it a significant, yet preventable, problem. As a chronic parasitic infection, the disease is transmitted by insects and most commonly found in impoverished regions of Latin America, as well as the rest of the Americas. The purpose of this report is to explain the biology of this disease as well as its epidemiology and prevention strategies.
Someone with the virus is easily recognizable. Symptoms include, a fever of 101.5 degrees Fahrenheit. The infected may also experience severe headaches, muscle pains, vomiting, stomach pains, diarrhea, and unexplained bleeding or bruising. A strange symptom of the virus is blood shot eyes and hiccuping. Vomiting blood or urine laced with blood is also common, however, bleeding usually isn’t how victims die. Instead the common death is from organ failure, This is caused by blood vessels deep in the body that begin to leak fluid causing blood pressure to lower so much that the organs slowly begin to fail. Symptoms of the virus may start after two to 21 days after infection. A exponential
The symptoms are fever, stiff neck, headache, and loss of appetite. This disease occurs when you have direct contract with a person who is infected. To prevent getting infected wash your hands with soap and water frequently, avoid touching you face with unwashed hands, avoid contract such as hugging or sharing items, and clean and disinfect. The incubation period of this disease is three to seven days from the time your infected until the time you develop symptoms. You can usually spread this virus to someone after three days of being infected.
Clinical Manifestations: (What are the textbook signs & symptoms of the disease? *Highlight the s/s your patient
This disease can be deadly and needs to be discussed. During the lecture about chapter five, the
for a long time, given the often clinically occult site of presentation [8] and patients
Chagas disease can have both acute and chronic conditions. The symptoms can vary from mild to severe, however many people do not have symptoms until the chronic
It is one of the most aggressive diseases, and the prognosis depends on early diagnosis of the disease [8]. However, many benign diseases mimic the sign
When people are exposed to it, there is a 30% to 60% chance that the infection will remain asymptomatic and the individual won’t show a body rash or experience a fever (Baron et al. 1990). The individuals that do express the manifestation of symptoms may show overlapping symptoms that could be mistaken for at least 30 different diseases, however, the main characteristic remains that the red/pink rash starts in the face, spreads to the upper torso and descends and it goes again in the order it came (Baron et al. 1990). Also, the rash lasts 3 days. It is reported that as the infection happens in an older age, the symptoms increase in severity compared to the pathogenicity of an infected child. The person that comes in contact and acquires the infection will experience intrinsic incubation of fourteen to twenty-one days until the infection becomes symptomatic or asymptomatic. Some symptoms that manifest are low-grade fever that usually remains below 101 degrees F, upper respiratory symptoms that are like the flu, like runny nose, allergies, lymphadenopathy, which is the swelling of the lymph nodes beneath the cranium around the neck and the posterior cervical and postauricular
This virus may cause complication in certain groups of people however the complications are very rare. The complications may include, hepatitis, meningoencephalitis, bullous dermatosis, and pneumonia. The individuals who are more likely to suffer from the complications are people who experience cardiovascular, respiratory or neurological conditions, as well as neonates and elderly patients above the age of 65. In a 2005 outbreak the mortality rate among the selected groups of individuals listed above was 10.5%. The cause of death is very rare and complications often do not exist with the virus (Natesan).
Most Yanomami people suffer from river blindness, a disease spread by black flies that make sight-impairing lesions on the eyes. Another symptom includes alligator skin, steam, and savage itching. Although it is not deadly, the disease usually commences to blindness, leaving people unable to hunt or farm. Yanomamö understands that most severe illness to be the invention of freely acting hekura or rival priest who have caused their hekura to sicken the body. The priest is required to diagnose the cause and most of the time figuratively remove the demon out, usually with helped with his own demons. To prepare, a priest frequently decorates himself and his surroundings abundantly and always inhales a hallucinogenic snuff to support connection
On comparison of clinical stages, majority of cases belonged to Stage II comprising of 10 (33.33%) patients followed by Stage I in 9 (30.00%) patients, Stage III in 8 (26.67 %) patients and Stage IV in 3 (10%) patients. (Table 6)
Regardless of which form of the disease the infected individual has if gone untreated the disease can be fatal.