posted
This is THE major disease in the Americas, infecting an estimated 18-20 million in Central and South America, and killing 50,000 each year.
The disease is transmitted by Triatomine or "kissing" bugs. These bites frequently get misdiagnosed as spider bites.
The chronic stages of the disease is characterized by peripheral/autonomic neuropathy and denervation, myocarditis, cardiac conduction abnormalities, gastrointestinal involvement, lethargy, and much more.
Most doctors have been taught that the disease isn't transmitted to humans in the US, even though the vector bugs are here in droves (triatomine, or "kissing bugs"), and a large percentage of wildlife is infected with T. Cruzi. (one study showed 30 percent of stray dogs in Texas were infected)
Recently, I was able to speak with an authority on the subject (a university researcher). It is now known within the scientific community that this disease IS being transmitted in the southern U.S, and that the only question is how many cases are going undiagnosed. As of now, there is no known cure for Chagas in its chronic forms.
I bring this disease up as I was bitten by ``something'' in Albuquerque NM a few years back and fell ill shortly afterward. The doctor at the hospital told me it was a spider bite and I was reacting to the venom, even though I had seen the bug that bit me, telling him it looked ``like a roach crossed with a mosquito''.
It wasn't until recently that I ended up finding out what bit me. I had just gotten back from the Mayo clinic with a diagnosis of POTS and dysautonomia. To make a long story short, I went online, searched for dysautonomia, saw something called chagas disease, clicked on it, and lo and behold, a picture of the bug that bit me a few years ago. I don't yet know whether or not I have it (diagnosed with lyme but have my doubts), but I'm in the process of being tested for it.
Posts: 53 | From tampa | Registered: Mar 2006
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posted
Very interesting. At one point before my lyme diagnosis, the thought of chagas disease crossed my mind since I had been in south america.
But adding up all the pieces and the sequence, later it became obvious that it was in fact a tick in california that did the deed.
And it is certainly a worry that southern hemisphere diseases are moving north. The ones in mexico don't have that far to go before they become a problem in the U.S.
If you saw the actual bug that bit you, then that is certainly a big clue. Does the development of the disease coincide with your symptoms?
Another thing you might consider is having coinfection tests done also, like bartonella, babesia, ehrlichia, because that will tell you that you have been tick bitten, even if the lyme test comes back negative. False negatives are a big problem with lyme tests.
Posts: 8430 | From Not available | Registered: Oct 2000
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Center for Molecular Medicine and Infectious Diseases, Department of Biomedical Sciences and Pathobiology, Virginia-Maryland Regional College of Veterinary Medicine, Virginia Tech, 1410 Prices Fork Road, Blacksburg, Virginia 24061-0342, USA.
Raccoons (Procyon lotor) are reservoir hosts for Trypanosoma cruzi. A 3-yr-long serological survey was conducted to determine the prevalence of antibodies to this zoonotic parasite in raccoons collected from Fairfax County, Virginia, a suburban/urban area outside Washington, D.C. Serum samples from 464 raccoons were examined for T. cruzi antibodies at a 1:40 dilution with an indirect fluorescent antibody test (IFAT) and Brazil strain T. cruzi amastigotes and trypomastigotes as antigen. A positive IFAT test was found in 154 (33%) of the 464 samples. The yearly prevalence was 49 of 132 (37%) in 2000; 19 of 120 (16%) in 2001; and 86 of 212 (41%) in 2002. Our study indicates that raccoons in this area of Virginia are frequently exposed to T. cruzi.
PMID: 15986630 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]
Posts: 8430 | From Not available | Registered: Oct 2000
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Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Division of Parasitic Diseases, Mailstop F22, 4770 Buford Hwy. N.E., Atlanta, GA 30341-3724, USA. [email protected]
In July 1998, the mother of an 18-month-old boy in rural Tennessee found a triatomine bug in his crib, which she saved because it resembled a bug shown on a television program about insects that prey on mammals. The gut contents of the Triatoma sanguisuga were found, by light microscopy and polymerase chain reaction (PCR), to be infected with Trypanosoma cruzi; PCR products hybridized with T. cruzi-specific oligonucleotide probes. Whole-blood specimens obtained from the child in July and August were negative by buffy-coat examination and hemoculture but positive by PCR and DNA hybridization, suggesting that he had low-level parasitemia. Specimens obtained after treatment with benznidazole were negative. He did not develop anti-T. cruzi antibody; 19 relatives and neighbors also were seronegative. Two of 3 raccoons trapped in the vicinity had positive hemocultures for T. cruzi. The child's case of T. cruzi infection-the fifth reported US autochthonous case-would have been missed without his mother's attentiveness and the availability of sensitive molecular techniques.
Publication Types:
* Case Reports * Review
PMID: 10608796 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]
Posts: 8430 | From Not available | Registered: Oct 2000
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posted
Interesting articles. I think the time frame fits pretty well for me, but I don't want to jump to any conclusions without the test results to back it up. I talked to an expert researching and testing for the disease, and he told me based on my symptoms and exposure to the bug (I crushed it on me while it was biting me as I didnt know any better), he would give me a one in ten shot of having it.
Posts: 53 | From tampa | Registered: Mar 2006
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posted
Well, let us know the results of the test. Maybe your case will be written up in the CDC's journal as another "autochthonous" case if it is chagas instead of lyme.
Posts: 8430 | From Not available | Registered: Oct 2000
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posted
How is this disease treated? Are tests for it as "accurate" [ha] as they are for lyme disease?
Posts: 114 | From USA | Registered: Sep 2005
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quote:Originally posted by blackbirdsings: How is this disease treated? Are tests for it as "accurate" [ha] as they are for lyme disease?
A few ineffective treatments are used in the acute stage. In the chronic stage, there is no treatment. It seems since the disease is most prevelent in poor areas of south america, there is little financial incentive to develop a cure, even though an estimated 20 MILLION are infected in latin america. As for the tests, the researcher I talked to said they are about 95 percent sensitive in detecting the chronic form of the disease using an IFA method.
Posts: 53 | From tampa | Registered: Mar 2006
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posted
Tell a lymie ANY test is 95% accurate and you will get a skeptical reaction. Hope this is true in the case of chagas, but one thing I read said that antigen/antibody tests aren't much good for sleeping sickness, another trypanosome disease.
Here is the way they are treating sleeping sickness. Wonder if it is applicable at all to chagas?
I am interested in these diseases because of traveling to places with a heck of a lot of nasty things to catch. But the ironic thing is that instead of some tropical thing, I get lyme in an area where I lived for years and thought was safe.
Posts: 8430 | From Not available | Registered: Oct 2000
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Marnie
Frequent Contributor (5K+ posts)
Member # 773
posted
We need more CO2 traps...
Posts: 9430 | From Sunshine State | Registered: Mar 2001
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GiGi
Frequent Contributor (5K+ posts)
Member # 259
posted
I am posting this info that Oxygenbabe sent me. I call it a thoughtless and self-limiting act to ban a person from this board that has always contributed immensely to the board - for years. It's your loss, Board, big time. But here is her information - maybe it helps someone somewhere:
"Gudrun, a person posted on lymenet that he/she has chagas, and people are chiming in that there is no cure. Since I'm banned, and still don't know exactly why, can you be kind enough to post this URL for them:
There is indeed effective treatment now with antifungals. Thanx."
Take care.
P.S. I do hope that someone up there will finally give some thought to reinstating Oxygenbabe. The quality of the board as it appears at present will not suffer; all, who have been here for years and know her, will have to admit. "Shut up and go to your room" has never brought anything good to anybody.
Posts: 9834 | From Washington State | Registered: Oct 2000
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posted
Thank you for the link GiGi. Once again, let me clarify that I do not yet know if I have Chagas, just that it is a possibility. Also, the researcher I spoke with discussed various treatments with me (in the event I test positive), including Azoles. He said they are effective against some strains of T. Cruzi up to a certain point, but don't erradicate it from the body. Maybe he's right, maybe he's not. What's funny is I also mentioned lyme disease to him as a possibility, and he said the tests for that are accurate, and it's easily cured with 2 weeks of antibiotics. Even so, I'd assume he would know what he's talking about regarding Chagas as it's basically his lifes work.
Posts: 53 | From tampa | Registered: Mar 2006
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beachcomber
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
Member # 5320
posted
Chagas crossed the minds of my MDs early on. I believe I was tested. I too have spent time in SA. However, Chagas is here in the States as well. With such a large Central & South American community here it would be ignorant to believe otherwise.
My MD studied tropical infectious diseases and has never ruled the possibility of Chagas or Malaria out, as the symptoms are similar to Lyme & co-infections in many ways.
Keep an open mind and open eyes. Anything is possible. Sure hope you don't have Chagas. Good luck.
Posts: 1452 | Registered: Feb 2004
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posted
I have a CO2 trap you can HAVE if you will come and get it. They are totally worthless, at least in this part of the country.
I fell for that line about the bug zappers killing all the BENEFICIAL bugs... and shelled out the $300 or $400 for the CO2 trap. I think it caught about 7 mosquitos. In the same time I must have swatted at least 700 of them.
Then one day it dawned on me that the little scientific sounding story was exactly word for word the same text all over the internet. I'm sure it came from Berkely by the concern for the welfare of biting insects being put ahead of humans.
Besides... seeing the words 'beneficial insects' and 'Texas' in the same sentence has got to be a big red flag for anyone who lives here. If it is a bug and lives here its sole purpose is to bite you, lay its eggs in your flesh, and then deposit whatever disease it carries as a parting gift.
The good old fashioned redneck bug zapper works pretty well after all. Yes it kills some moths. We have way too many of them anyway. If you aren't fast enough getting in the front door they follow you in and eat holes in your best clothes.
It also kills ALOT of mosquitos. Just look underneath it. I'll bet it would kill a 'Kissing Bug' too.
The CO2 traps are a waste of money, you would do better with a fly swatter.
Posts: 714 | From San Antonio TX | Registered: Oct 2004
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posted
If someone is unfortunate enough to have chagas, don't dispair....Rife techniques which I have found incredably helpful against Lyme and Babesia should also work against the bugs of the Trypanosoma genus. There are some frequencies just for this group.
I worked 2 years in rural South and Central America and can appreciate the seriousness of the disease.
At least the tests for chagas are pretty good!
Good Luck!
Posts: 546 | From Cascadia subduction zone | Registered: Mar 2002
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I think Ketoconazole (Nizoral is the Trade Name) is one that has some effectiveness against Chagas Disease. I remember reading that a few months ago as it impressed me that it must be pretty good stuff to do so.
Posts: 714 | From San Antonio TX | Registered: Oct 2004
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posted
Can Chagas have the same red circular area where bite was? or the rash? I know this does not happen always/often with Lyme but I had the red circle and the rash. I was bitten in Cancun, Mexico over 15 years ago. Any suggestions?
Posts: 35 | From baltimore, md & nj | Registered: Apr 2006
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-------------------- **Eat Chocolate** Posts: 942 | From USA | Registered: Mar 2005
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AliG
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
Member # 9734
posted
I just lost my thread on this & saw yours so I'm posting this here, I hope you don't mind.
IDiot told me several years ago when I was bitten by a reduviid that we "don't have Chagas in North American". He told my PCP I had multiple "somatoform" symptoms "indeed".
Jersey firm perfects screening for killer tropical infection that can lie dormant for decades
Thursday, December 14, 2006 BY KITTA MacPHERSON AND AMY ELLIS NUTT Star-Ledger Staff
Federal authorities have approved a New Jersey company's test to screen blood donations nationwide for exposure to a rare but deadly tropical infection called Chagas.
The parasitic disease is common to most of Mexico and Latin and South America and kills approximately 50,000 people a year, most of them years after they were initially infected.
There may be as many as 100,000 people in the United States currently unaware that they are even carrying the parasite, according to James Maguire, head of the division of international health at the University of Maryland School of Medicine and former chief of parasitology for the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta.
"These guys don't know they are infected," said Maguire. "They come seeking treatment for heart ailments or gastrointestinal disorders and, by then, it's too late."
Officials on a Food and Drug Administration blood safety committee, meeting in Maryland yesterday, based their decision on a study released last month by the American Red Cross, which reported a dramatic rise in the number of U.S. blood donors testing positive for exposure to the parasite, Trypanosoma cruzi, responsible for Chagas.
The agency documented the ratio of infected donors in the Los Angles and Miami areas as approximately one in 2,000, up from one in 9,900 just 10 years ago.
To date, there have been 12 confirmed cases of Chagas disease transmission in the United States and Canada, and in July the CDC reported the fourth and fifth cases of T.cruzi transmission through organ transplantation. One of those transplant patients died as a result of acute Chagas disease.
The mass-screen antibody test will be made by Ortho Clinical Diagnostics in Raritan, a division of Johnson & Johnson.
Company scientists already are working to develop other tests that can be used to screen infected tissues and organs for the disease as well as one that will be packaged as a diagnostic kit for individual patients.
"The good thing about this is that, though we do see a statistically significant increase in the number of positives, the public health community is working together to contain it," said Steve Dnistrian, vice president of worldwide communications for Ortho. "The overall numbers are still low."
TOO LONG IN COMING
Some scientists and public health officials, however, are frustrated that it has taken this long to get the pharmaceutical industry's attention.
"The original studies (in 1996) should have been enough fuel to recognize we needed a test," said Susan Stramer, executive scientific officer with the American Red Cross.
"The FDA had talked to manufacturers for years ... I'm not sure how serious the industry was that the blood-banking community would use the test."
In the United States, about 14 million pints of whole blood are donated each year, according to the National Blood Data Resource Center, and approximately 12 million pints are used.
Most Latin American countries have been screening their blood supply for 20 years, said Stramer, but their tests lack the sensitivity of the new Ortho product.
Worldwide, between 16 million and 18 million people are infected with Chagas, which is a zoonotic, or animal-to-human, disease that infects dogs, cats and domestic rodents, as well as opossums and wild rodents.
It is transmitted from animal to human, and between humans, by the triatomine bug, an inch-long beetle known as the "kissing bug" because it bites at night, painlessly, on the exposed skin (often the face) of a sleeping victim.
The bite itself is not the source of the infection, but rather a parasite in the bug's feces, which is deposited during or immediately after the bite. The parasite enters the body when a person accidentally rubs the feces into the bite, the eyes or when touching the mouth.
Called a silent killer, Chagas can lie dormant for years, even decades, before causing symptoms -- usually fatigue, fever, enlarged liver or spleen or swollen lymph nodes.
When it reaches this stage, it is incurable and frequently kills by attacking the heart.
Because the disease can only be transmitted in one of four ways -- by bug bite, blood transfusion, organ transplantation or mother to developing fetus -- public health officials are hoping to stem the spread of the disease through the blood supply by aggressively screening for it.
There are two drugs used to treat the illness, but they work only if the infection is caught early, Maguire said.
American physicians are so unfamiliar with it that the CDC held a meeting in October for public health physicians to familiarize them with the disease in anticipation of the FDA action, according to Maguire.
HOW BAD IS IT?
Dan Waxman, a member of the board of directors of America's Blood Centers, one of the country's largest blood center networks, noted that experts can't really know the extent of infection in the nation's blood supply until they have conducted extensive testing.
"There could be a good number of silent infections," Waxman said. "There could be patients who might not know that they have been infected by something like an organ transplant."
Officials said it would be wrong for the public to allow the news to fuel negative feelings toward immigrants from Latin America.
"This is a disease caused by insects, not people," said Michael Waller, vice president of clinical and medical affairs at Ortho.
Public health officials said they wanted to avoid the mistakes made with West Nile virus, the mosquito-borne illness that first appeared in the New York area in 1999 and then spread westward.
Initially, test companies devised a diagnostic test for individuals believed infected by West Nile. But it was only after claims that the disease had been transmitted by tainted blood that companies introduced a blood screening test for West Nile.
"We don't have solid data, but we know the overall prevalence of potential blood donors who could be infected with Chagas disease has been on the increase for the past few decades," said Ortho's Waller.
The company has put "singular resources" into the test, which he described as "99.998" percent accurate.
The blood-banking community has been tracking Chagas through the U.S. for more than a decade.
"In this case, the public health community did it right," said Ortho's Dnistrian. "Their vigilance really worked, in terms of the fact that they were able to track it from a very early stage and get on top of it at the appropriate point."
In Latin America, authorities have reduced the incidence of the disease from about 18 million to 20 million infections in 1990 to between 10 million and 12 million today.
Government officials reduced the rate of infections through mandatory screenings of the blood supply and pest control efforts against the beetle that carries the disease parasite.
Brazil and Argentina have been hot spots for the disease, while Mexico has had a lower incidence of infection, officials said.
Blood donated at U.S. centers currently is subjected to 14 tests, at least half a dozen of them for infectious diseases such as hepatitis and HIV.
In 2003, a West Nile test was made available. About 5 percent of the U.S. population donates blood each year, and one in 10 hospital patients receives a transfusion.
"We're pleased the test is licensed," said Stramer. "But we've lost time. At least there have been only a handful of documented cases, but I worry about all those individuals down the line who aren't sick now and don't know they might be infected."
Kitta MacPherson may be reached at (973) 392-5836 or [email protected]. Amy Ellis Nutt may be reached at (973) 392-1794 or [email protected].
I can't read now, but will come back.
I don't know if anyone has brought up the lack of "customs" checking of illegal immigrants, with relation to the increasing population of Reduviids.
-------------------- 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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posted
So let's recap ... there are 12 documented cases of Chagas in the US and Canada and thousands undiagnosed so now we are testing the blood supply for that.
There are THOUSANDS diagnosed each year in the US for LYME and an estimated 225,000-250,000 infected annually with it ...... BUT NO Testing of the Blood supply for Lyme. Let alone babesia.
Both can cause neurological and cardiac complications, even death.
Why isn't ILADS and the LDA pushing this??
-------------------- **Eat Chocolate** Posts: 942 | From USA | Registered: Mar 2005
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caat
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
Member # 2321
posted
"The bite itself is not the source of the infection, but rather a parasite in the bug's feces, which is deposited during or immediately after the bite. The parasite enters the body when a person accidentally rubs the feces into the bite, the eyes or when touching the mouth. "
Most of what you read about them in the west mentions them as being in "some parts of southern california and texas". But we have those bugs all over the california coast. I'm in humboldt county which is almost in Oregon and I smash the @#$%s every summer. I get bit by them every summer too. They suck blood. They attack when mammals are asleep and then run back outside or creep into cracks somewhere.
When they feed in the adult stages, if you find one then keep looking. They are found in pairs when searching out an adult meal. Probley has something to do with a meal before reproduction.
Supposedly humans cannot catch chagas from the species in California because the bugs don't have the habit of pooping on you after a blood meal. HOWEVER, chagas is very much in the wildlife population. I think that the whole story of transmission is not being told here.
They may also carry other things. They could possibly even carry lyme.
Very few people know what they are or know they suck blood. They look pretty innocuous. I collect one or 2 each year and show the kids in the neighborhood and ask them to squish them if they see them.
I think my exposure to them is not uncommon. I've seen them in 3 out of 4 places I've lived in this area- in 3 different counties. Only one person I met knew what they were. He showed them to me as he had had several heart attacks from being bit. Those heart attacks are described as allergic reactions.
Posts: 1436 | From Humboldt county ca usa | Registered: Mar 2002
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caat
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
Member # 2321
While this report looks at drug resistance, it's possible that the populations of the protozoa in areas where changas is not treated have not developed resistance.
Posts: 1436 | From Humboldt county ca usa | Registered: Mar 2002
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clairenotes
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
Member # 10392
posted
Good to hear that rife may hold some promise.
Posts: 1111 | From Colorado | Registered: Oct 2006
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treepatrol
Honored Contributor (10K+ posts)
Member # 4117
posted
Chagas disease is usually found in countries throughout Central and South America; however, cases have been found as far north as Texas, Oklahoma, and California. Since it is a vector-borne disease, the parasite must hitch a ride with an insect to get from one host to another. T. cruzi's preferred method of travel is the kissing bug, also known as triatomes.
Transmission is straightforward. When a kissing bug lands on an animal or person already infected with T. cruzi, it sucks up the parasite during its blood meal; characteristically `kissing' its host's eyelids, ears, or lips. The bug can then fly off and land on another animal or person and defecate on that host's skin. The parasite enters the new host's body through their eyes, mouth or any open cuts. The parasite can also be contracted through blood transfusions or eating uncooked food contaminated with kissing bug feces, though these routes are much more rare.
There are three stages of symptoms in the progress of the disease in humans. Just after infection, a small sore appears at the site of the bug bite where the parasite entered the body. If the parasite entered through the eye, then the patient's eyelid becomes swollen: an occurrence known as Romana's Sign. After a few days, the lymph nodes may also begin to swell. During the acute phase, young children or immuno-compromised patients are especially susceptible to illness and death; however, most patients will go on to enter the next phase of the disease, known as the indeterminate stage, which is usually symptom-less and can last many months or years.
How the Genetically-Modified Insect Got its Genes
Research on Chagas' disease and other vector-borne diseases has taken many different tracks. Dr. Ravi Durvasula, assistant clinical professor at the Yale School of Public Health in Connecticut, has been developing one strategy using paratransgenetic kissing bugs.
And here is Yale again up to the same old crap!!!!
Paratransgenetics is very much like the concept of genetically modified animals. Just as the genes of an animal are modified in a lab setting to produce new traits, bacteria can be modified to express new traits as well. In Durvasula's research, the kissing bugs themselves are not modified - instead, the bacteria that live within their guts are.
Since a kissing bug takes all its meals off vertebrate blood, which is admittedly a very limiting diet, the presence of bacteria in their digestive tracts ensures that the insects will get all the nutrients they need.
{The bacteria} help process vitamins in the blood meal, completing the nutritional package for the insects,'' says Durvasula.
But, where do these bacteria come from and how do they find their way an insect gut? When the insects first hatch, they are essentially bacteria-free, Durvasula explains. They acquire their own supply of bacterial helpers through a process called coprophaging: the newborn insects probe the bacteria-infested feces of nearby adult insects and ingest what they need.
It was precisely this process, which inspired Durvasula to create `Cruziguard' a type of fake feces, in the form of a black paste which can be inoculated with modified bacteria. If placed on the walls of houses, where the insects like to land between bloodmeals, the bacteria will be taken up and a paratransgenetic kissing bug will be formed.
The genetically modified {GM} bacteria can be tailored so that any kissing bug who picks up a T. cruzi parasite will not become infective. With this is place, the parasite will lose its vehicle and eventually die out as it loses access to its hosts. Recent debate has centered around the fact that releasing GM bacteria or other GM animals into the wild could have a number of unpleasant ecological consequences. The Biotech Bugs Conference in September in Washington, DC, was held for exactly this reason: to examine the science and public policy surrounding GM insects.
'It's picking up. There's definitely more interest in {GM insects} now,'' says Durvasula. ``The discussion is not whether we can do it or not, but... how are you going to regulate this?''
When asked whether any GM insects or paratransgenetic insects have been released yet, his answer was very direct: ``Emphatically, no. Field release may be associated with significant consequences which have to be studied and modeled under experimental conditions... No one has talked about releasing yet.''
Releasing GM insects could result in horizontal gene transfer, which is the possibility that the modified bacteria could enter other insect species and create havoc with the ecosystems present Drugs from Bugs and Other Research
Other research into Chagas' disease has delved into the realm of immune proteins and antibiotics. Dr. Carl Lowenberger, an associate professor at Simon Fraser University in British Columbia, Canada, has been looking into the possibility of harnessing immune proteins from the vectors themselves to create antibiotics that can be used by humans. His lab studies the immune responses of both mosquitoes and kissing bugs toward a variety of different parasites.
``Every stage where {the parasites}contact host tissues, the insect has a chance to respond,'' says Lowenberger.
The intensity of the insect immune response depends on a lot of factors, including the ability of the insect to recognize the parasite as a foreign object. In the case of T. cruzi and its vector, the mode of infection works so that the parasite never leaves the insect gut. This is different than the parasite responsible for malaria, which will travel through mosquito tissues and to its final destination in the mosquito's salivary glands. Lowenberger suggests that T. cruzi's method of transmission developed because the parasite is susceptible to the immune proteins produced by its vector, and by staying in the gut region, it effectively stays out of reach. If this hypothesis is true, then identifying and reproducing the right immune proteins could be the way to develop a drug that could combat the disease in humans. This idea has already met with success using other insects.
`There is one insect immune protein that is being developed right now against herpes and hepatitis,' comments Lowenberger. `There is an insect anti-fungal also being exploited.'
Neglected No More
We can see now how a disease that is relatively unknown to the general public has in fact been creating vast waves of controversy and attention within scientific spheres. The study of both GM insects and insect immune proteins has opened up a whole range of new avenues for scientific exploration and medical progress. Chagas may still be a `neglected disease', but hopefully not for much longer, because, as Durvasula says, `The bar has been raised.'
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