Chagas is a tropical disease and has been called the "disease of the poor." It is transmitted through insects nicknamed kissing bugs due to their tendency to infect victims on the lips. Chagas is like AIDS by incubation, treatment and by blood or mother-to-child transmission. About 300 thousand people in the Unites States have been diagnosed with Chagas - which produces parasites in the bloodstream. Parasites that can find their way to the heart and eventually cause heart failure. For many victims of the disease, by the time heart problems show up - it is generally too late.
If discovered early, Chagas can be treated with an aggressive 3-month application of moderately expensive drugs. But some feel because the disease only affects the poor there is little incentive for drug companies to find alternative treatments or even a cure.
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