"Triatomine bugs (or "kissing" bugs) live in cracks and holes of substandard housing from the
southern United States
to southern Argentina . The blood sucking bugs are primarily found in Central and South America and Mexico. Triatomine (sometimes also called reduviid) bugs become infected after biting an animal or person, who is already infected with the parasite."
Sing along with me...north to Alaska...
Posts: 9424 | From Sunshine State | Registered: Mar 2001
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posted
Whats crazy about Chagas is most in this country don't even know what it is, even though an estimated 20 million have it in the Americas.
Although doctors are taught we don't get it in the states, I've also spoken with a top researcher on Chagas from the university of Iowa, and he said it's being transmitted here in the US quite frequently, it's just going undiagnosed as various forms of cardiomyopathy and neorological problems (and viral carditis if the person dies). In fact, in the southern US about 30% of stray dogs tested were infected according to the cdc. In another study 40% of raccoons tested in an area of virginia were infected. Now, the argument used to explain how these results relate to humans is that the species of triatomine bugs in the US don't exhibit the same behavioral patters as the central and south american species, reducing the chance of vectoring to humans. Riiiiighhhttt.
Posts: 53 | From tampa | Registered: Mar 2006
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"from the steamy Amazon jungle, where Chagas disease is still a deadly threat, to metropolitan Los Angeles where infected immigrants who are selling their blood for money are depositing Chagas disease in blood banks." Posts: 294 | From nevada | Registered: Sep 2005
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treepatrol
Honored Contributor (10K+ posts)
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posted
Take a look at these top two pics look familiar?
Now this isnt LYME its T. cruzi chagas disease.
Now read what Ohio state says. No effective treatment. Available drugs only kill extracellular parasites. Most successful treatment during acute phase - about a 60% success.
Benznidazole and Nifurtinox: current drugs of choice. Required daily for up to 2 months or more. Hospitalization may be needed because of adverse effects.
This
They also can cyst up and curl into a ball and also bleb interesting huh?
The classic life cycle forTrypanosoma cruzi utilizes reduviid insects as a vector. When these insects feed on infected individuals, they also ingest trypomastigotes (trypanosomes) of T. cruzi.
The trypomastoigotes localize in the midgut of the reduviid bug and multiply and differentiate from transient amastigotes (leishmanial forms) to epimastigotes (crithidial forms), and finally to metacyclic trypomastigotes.
The latter accumulate in the rectum and are discharged with the feces, sometimes onto a potential host. Infection takes place by fecal contamination of mucous membranes or abraded skin or by ingestion of the insect. In the mammalian host, the metacyclic trypomastigotes enter histiocytes and proliferate in the amastigote form at the local site where a fibrous encapsulation may obstruct lymphatics causing localized edema.
Amastigotes pass to local lymph nodes and then disseminate throughout the body via the lymphatic system. Liver, lungs, spleen, bone marrow, cardiac muscle and cerebral cortex are affected. In these sites, amastigotes proliferate, causing rupture of host cells and release of trypomastigote forms into the blood.
Trypomastigotes penetrate various types of cells including cardiac, smooth, and skeletal muscle; the nervous system, skin, gonads, intestine, bone marrow, and placenta may also be infected. Intracellular amastigotes undergo repeated divisions to form large numbers of parasites, producing the parasitic cyst.
After a few days, the amastigotes retransform into trypomastigotes and burst out of the parasitic cyst. A generalized parasitemia occurs, and almost any type of tissue can be invaded, although the parasites show a preference for muscle and nerve cells. This cycle is repeated producing large numbers of amastigotes and the clinical signs and histological lesions associated with T. cruzi infection.
Trypanosoma cruzi causes an acute myocarditis that can progress to a chronic, debilitating and often fatal disease characterized by dilatative cardiomyopathy. Lesions frequently associated with chronic T. cruzi infection are pulmonary edema and hepatic congestion, due to development of congestive heart failure secondary to cardiomyocyte damage.
Hepatic centrilobular congestion may result in the elevation of the liver enzymes alanine aminotransferase and aspartate aminotransferase (AST).
Parasitic destruction of muscle cells, which also contain AST in significant concentrations, will contribute to serum elevations of that enzyme. Muscle damage is more accurately accessed, however, by measurements of serum levels of creatine kinase (CK) and lactate dehydrogenase (LDH).
CK is a dimeric enzyme composed of two subunits: B for brain, and M for muscle, that forms three isoenzymes (CK1-CK3). CK1 is found in nervous tissue and is not found in the serum, even during disease. CK2 is found in cardiac muscle, and CK3 is found in skeletal and cardiac muscle. CK has a half-life of 2-4 hours and returns to normal in 1 to 2 days after cesseation of injury. LDH is a tetrameric enzyme composed of two subunits, H (heart) and M (muscle).
In dogs, LDH1 is the principal isoenzyme of cardiac muscle and kidney. LDH5 is the principle isoenzyme in erythrocytes and skeletal muscle. LDH has a longer half-life and will persist in the serum longer than CK or AST.
These muscle enzymes may not be elevated in cases of chronic trypanosomiasis, as the cellular damage occurs long before clinical signs develop; however, they could be of diagnostic value in identifying myocardial or muscular damage during the acute form of the disease.
-------------------- Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. Remember Iam not a Doctor Just someone struggling like you with Tick Borne Diseases.
-------------------- Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. Remember Iam not a Doctor Just someone struggling like you with Tick Borne Diseases.
Truthfinder
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
Member # 8512
posted
Yes, just like Lyme, this is one of those bugs they don't screen for at the blood banks. Too costly, they say. Yeah, well for WHOM?
Tracy
-------------------- Tracy .... Prayers for the Lyme Community - every day at 6 p.m. Pacific Time and 9 p.m. Eastern Time � just take a few moments to say a prayer wherever you are�. Posts: 2966 | From Colorado | Registered: Dec 2005
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AliG
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posted
Here's a scary thought. I actually was bitten by one of those here, in NJ in 2004. It was hiding in the finger of my gardening gloves and didn't get me until the hedges were half done.
I looked it up to figure out what it was. Nasty freaking thing.
I went to an ID Dr. who looked at me as if I had two heads. He said we don't have T. cruzzi here in this area. My tests came out negative. I hope the tests for that aren't flawed like the Lyme tests.
-------------------- Note: I'm NOT a medical professional. The information I share is from my own personal research and experience. Please do not construe anything I share as medical advice, which should only be obtained from a licensed medical practitioner. Posts: 4881 | From Middlesex County, NJ | Registered: Jul 2006
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treepatrol
Honored Contributor (10K+ posts)
Member # 4117
posted
Heres the Bug:
Heretoo:
Disease explanation:
Chagas disease is caused by an intracellular parasite called Trypanosoma cruzi (T. cruzi). The disease is transmitted by a blood- sucking insect known as the kissing bug or reduviid bug. This insect lives in places like cracks in walls, under mattresses and in thatched roofs.
These insects are often found in poor and rural South and Central America and in Mexico where an estimated 16 to 18 million persons are infected.
As the kissing bug feeds, the insect defecates on the person's skin; the person may then rub the infectious feces into a break in the skin or into mucous membranes.
Once a person is infected, the T. cruzi parasite infects macrophages (a macrophage ingests organisms as part of the immune response to infection) where they multiply and change form.
As the macrophages burst, the parasites swim through the blood stream and infect all types of muscle cells including heart muscle.
When they are in the bloodstream they can infect another kissing bug (when another bug feeds from the infected person's bloodstream) or the parasites may be transmitted by transfusion.
About 20 percent of infections become chronic and may be fatal. The effects are usually seen between 5 and 15 years after the initial infection.
Damage is seen mainly to the heart where the infection causes scarring, dilation and abnormal heart rhythms, and in the intestine where damaged smooth muscle causes dilation.
T. cruzi may be transmitted to another person through blood donation during a chronic infection.
To date, four cases of Chagas disease due to blood transfusion have been reported in the United States.
Blood tests are available to detect T. cruzi and the Red Cross anticipates working with test manufacturers in the near future so that future screening of blood donors is possible.
-------------------- Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. Remember Iam not a Doctor Just someone struggling like you with Tick Borne Diseases.
posted
the 1948 presidential candidate, wallace, developed als either during or after an exploratory trek of the mexican, and central american temples, some if not many of which were still over-grown with jungle.
makes me wonder if his als wasn't due to chagas, and/or other insect-borne infection(s).
there was a thread on this topic a few months ago.
Posts: 2708 | Registered: Feb 2005
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treepatrol
Honored Contributor (10K+ posts)
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posted
Adult: They develop into adults in the spring. Adults can fly and have a long life. At Least ticks cant fly bloodsuckin dreggs of society. suppose theyll engeneer that next punkin heads!
-------------------- Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. Remember Iam not a Doctor Just someone struggling like you with Tick Borne Diseases.
posted
I don't think you guys should have to worry about Chagas Disease, the insect that trasmits it lives in the holes of houses built with clay.
Usually in really, really poor rural areas.
They use to bite at night, when you are sleeping (I don't think we have these bugs inside our homes). So what happens is that they have their meal on you for a while, and they poop on you (arghhh, nasty).
So when they leave, after a while, the anaesthetic they have in their salive "goes away", your skin itches... and you itch it, and you spread the insect poop on the bite site, so this is the way you get Chagas Disease...
treepatrol
Honored Contributor (10K+ posts)
Member # 4117
posted
rcs2
Chagas Disease in a Domestic Transmission Cycle in Southern Texas, USA Charles B. Beard,* Greg Pye,� Frank J. Steurer,* Ray Rodriguez,� Richard Campman,� A. Townsend Peterson,� Janine Ramsey,� Robert A. Wirtz,* and Laura E. Robinson� *Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, Georgia, USA; �Texas Department of Health, Harlingen, Texas, USA; �Cameron County Health Department, San Benito, Texas, USA; �Natural History Museum, University of Kansas, Lawrence, Kansas, USA; �Centro de Investigaciones sobre Enfermedades Infecciosas, Instituto Nacional de Salud P�blica Cuernavaca, Morelos, M�xico
Dosent look like a mud hut to me? The Study Chagas disease is caused by the parasitic protozoan Trypanosoma cruzi and affects an estimated 12 million persons throughout South and Central America and Mexico (1,2). In the United States, the disease exists almost exclusively as a zoonosis; only five autochthonous insect-borne cases have been reported in humans (3). The distribution of Chagas disease in the United States includes approximately the southern half of the country. Twelve species of triatomines are known to occur in the United States, the most important being Triatoma sanguisuga in the eastern United States, Triatoma gerstaeckeri in the region of Texas and New Mexico, and Triatoma rubida and Triatoma protracta in Arizona and California (4,5).
Figure 5. Genetic Algorithm for Rule-set Prediction-generated ecologic niche model, predicting distribution of Triatoma gerstaeckeri... In the small community of San Benito, Texas (Figure 1), after three pet dogs died from Chagas cardiomyopathy, personnel from the Texas Department of Health, the Cameron County Health Department, Environmental Health Division, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) inspected the owner's home, garage, and grounds for potential triatomine insect vectors (Figure 2). Blood was drawn from four dogs and two persons residing on the property and tested for antibodies to T. cruzi. A second site approximately 2 miles away was also inspected and blood drawn from three dogs, one of which had been diagnosed as positive for T. cruzi by the original veterinarian. A follow-up serologic survey was conducted to determine the percentage of the stray dogs in Cameron County that would test positive for Chagas disease antibodies. Once a week, samples from stray dogs were shipped to CDC for testing. Each sample was issued an identification number; and information on the animal's location, sex, age, health condition, and size was recorded. Serum specimens were tested for anti-T. cruzi antibodies by indirect immunofluorescence (IIF)
-------------------- Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. Remember Iam not a Doctor Just someone struggling like you with Tick Borne Diseases.
I have all three of the buggers down the right side of this page in my yard: Assassin Bugs
Think I should move?
-------------------- Note: I'm NOT a medical professional. The information I share is from my own personal research and experience. Please do not construe anything I share as medical advice, which should only be obtained from a licensed medical practitioner. Posts: 4881 | From Middlesex County, NJ | Registered: Jul 2006
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I was reading an article a while ago talking about Chagas infection rates in the southern US and it was higher than I thought. And lets not forget our blood supply. Besides who knows what else is in the supply, I would think there would be a Chagas risk also.
Ernie
Posts: 546 | From Cascadia subduction zone | Registered: Mar 2002
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AliG
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
Member # 9734
posted
I think I have to get off here now. I'm getting depressed. I posted in general support, but I think this might be what depressed me. Good night all and pleasant bug-free dreams! Ali
-------------------- Note: I'm NOT a medical professional. The information I share is from my own personal research and experience. Please do not construe anything I share as medical advice, which should only be obtained from a licensed medical practitioner. Posts: 4881 | From Middlesex County, NJ | Registered: Jul 2006
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Truthfinder
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
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posted
Ali, I would seriously consider contacting a pest control company to get rid of those boogers. The Assassin Bug is another one of the vectors.
Lest there be any confusion about this!...... it is contamination from the ``poop'' of the Kissing Bugs that appears to be the biggest problem - not being bitten.
Apparently, 80% of human infection of Chagas comes from oral or ocular entry of feces of the ``kissing bug''. That appears to be the case with dogs, too.
From a Medline article:
quote:Oral transmission relates to the ingestion of food contaminated by feces of infected Triatominae (kissing bug).
This means that if you eat food at a restaurant prepared by someone who has been exposed to ``kissing bug poop'' (i.e., people from Mexico, etc.), you could ingest the bug if that worker is not scrupulously clean before handling any food products.
(Chagas Disease - CDC page):
quote:People can become infected with Chagas by: 1. unknowingly touching their eyes, mouth, or open cuts after having come into contact with infective triatome bug (kissing bug) feces; 2. bugs directly depositing infected feces in their eyes; 3. eating uncooked food contaminated with triatome bug feces; 4. receiving infection from mother during pregnancy or at birth; 5. receiving an infected blood transfusion or organ transplant.
.....Many people get the infection during childhood. Usually, the early stage of infection is not considered severe...... For about one-third of the persons who get Chagas disease, chronic symptoms develop 10-20 years after infection. (hmmm... sounds familiar) For those who develop chronic symptoms, the average life expectancy decreases by an average of 9 years....
Symptoms of Chagas disease may begin within a few days to a few weeks after infection. Most people do not have symptoms until the chronic stage of infection, 10 to 30-40 years after first being infected.
-------------------- Tracy .... Prayers for the Lyme Community - every day at 6 p.m. Pacific Time and 9 p.m. Eastern Time � just take a few moments to say a prayer wherever you are�. Posts: 2966 | From Colorado | Registered: Dec 2005
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AliG
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posted
OMG!!!
Every year since then, I've seen more of them around each year. I know the big ones are only out and about at night because I only really see them in my pool in the am. The one in my glove was probably sleeping there, until I wonke him up with my hedge trimmer. (I used to think my mom was cranky when I woke her up )
Thanks for pointing this out! My lyme brain really didn't catch the feces part. Now I really have something else to worry about.
I think I read something out there about "hand-picking" being the best control for some reason. (Yeah, right...like I'm gonna hand-pick those freaky bugs) Seriously, what do I do? Go out in the yard at night in my pumps with a flashlight?
I'm open to suggestions here. I'd try crying to my husband, but I'd probably get the same response I get when I ask him to do anything else around the yard/house.
I hope that's not what LLMD is holding out on me for my follow up! Yikes! I hope the Chagas tests aren't flawed too! I think I'm going to be sick
-------------------- Note: I'm NOT a medical professional. The information I share is from my own personal research and experience. Please do not construe anything I share as medical advice, which should only be obtained from a licensed medical practitioner. Posts: 4881 | From Middlesex County, NJ | Registered: Jul 2006
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quote:Originally posted by Lymetoo: Hey Marnie....any chance you could use www.tinyurl.com to shorten that link??
Makes the thread hard to read.
Thanks.
-------------------- --Lymetutu-- Opinions, not medical advice! Posts: 96222 | From Texas | Registered: Feb 2001
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AliG
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
Member # 9734
posted
TuTu,
Could it be the size of the pictures that's doing it? I'm not sure how the thread size thing works, but I noticed they're rather large.
Just curious?
-------------------- Note: I'm NOT a medical professional. The information I share is from my own personal research and experience. Please do not construe anything I share as medical advice, which should only be obtained from a licensed medical practitioner. Posts: 4881 | From Middlesex County, NJ | Registered: Jul 2006
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AliG
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
Member # 9734
posted
I found a new kind in my yard. This SOB Triatominae was climbing up my screen door behind my head. My daughter saw him. I've got him in a zip-loc bag. Any ideas? Should I take him to Rutgers? or LLMD?
Ali
[ 01. October 2006, 12:45 PM: Message edited by: AliG ]
-------------------- Note: I'm NOT a medical professional. The information I share is from my own personal research and experience. Please do not construe anything I share as medical advice, which should only be obtained from a licensed medical practitioner. Posts: 4881 | From Middlesex County, NJ | Registered: Jul 2006
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5dana8
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
Member # 7935
posted
WOW! they look like cork screw bac. under magification
I get stink bugs in our garden that look very similar to these bugs.
It seems hard to tell the difference.
-------------------- 5dana8 Posts: 4432 | From some where over the rainbow | Registered: Sep 2005
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AliG
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
Member # 9734
posted
Hey Dana,
If you'd venture the risk, you could come to my yard & compare them, I have stink bugs too.
I used to love living in a somewhat rural area, not anymore! There are just too many weird bugs around here!
-------------------- Note: I'm NOT a medical professional. The information I share is from my own personal research and experience. Please do not construe anything I share as medical advice, which should only be obtained from a licensed medical practitioner. Posts: 4881 | From Middlesex County, NJ | Registered: Jul 2006
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