Shiloh
Editor, Senior Moderator
Source: http://www.plosntds.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pntd.0002300
Editorial
An Unfolding Tragedy of Chagas Disease in North America
Peter J. Hotez, Eric Dumonteil, Miguel Betancourt Cravioto, Maria Elena Bottazzi, Roberto Tapia-Conyer, Sheba Meymandi, Unni Karunakara, Isabela Ribeiro, Rachel M. Cohen, Bernard Pecoul
Citation: Hotez PJ, Dumonteil E, Betancourt Cravioto M, Bottazzi ME, Tapia-Conyer R, et al. (2013) An Unfolding Tragedy of Chagas Disease in North America. PLoS Negl Trop Dis 7(10): e2300. doi:10.1371/journal.pntd.0002300
Published: October 31, 2013
...The established link between poverty and Chagas disease transmission derives largely from poor-quality housing that facilitates triatomine bug invasion, together with lack of access to adequate health care and antenatal care. Additional factors related to poverty also include lack of health education and environmental management leading to vector invasion and colonization [5]. Despite enormous strides made in Chagas vector control, through housing improvements and aggressive insecticidal spraying, and case reduction or even elimination in parts of Latin America [6], important areas of high endemicity persist, including in North America. Confirmatory data are scarce, but, according to some preliminary estimates, Mexico ranks number three, and the United States number seven, in terms of the number of infected individuals with Chagas disease in the Western Hemisphere, where 99% of the cases occur [2]. In Mexico, an earlier national seroprevalence survey reported a rate of 1.6% [7]. However, other reports have provided alternative estimates ranging between 1.0% and 5.9% (i.e., between one to six million cases nationwide) [1], [2]. In the U.S., approximately 300,000 cases are believed to be present [2], although one alternative estimate reports more than 250,000 cases in Texas alone [8], with up to one million or more cases nationwide (Figure 1) [9]. Thus, together with several thousand cases in Canada, there are between 1.5 million (lower estimate) and 7 million (highest estimate) cases of Chagas disease among the 500 million people living in North America. Clearly, there is a need for active surveillance data in order to better refine these prevalence data...
Editorial
An Unfolding Tragedy of Chagas Disease in North America
Peter J. Hotez, Eric Dumonteil, Miguel Betancourt Cravioto, Maria Elena Bottazzi, Roberto Tapia-Conyer, Sheba Meymandi, Unni Karunakara, Isabela Ribeiro, Rachel M. Cohen, Bernard Pecoul
Citation: Hotez PJ, Dumonteil E, Betancourt Cravioto M, Bottazzi ME, Tapia-Conyer R, et al. (2013) An Unfolding Tragedy of Chagas Disease in North America. PLoS Negl Trop Dis 7(10): e2300. doi:10.1371/journal.pntd.0002300
Published: October 31, 2013
...The established link between poverty and Chagas disease transmission derives largely from poor-quality housing that facilitates triatomine bug invasion, together with lack of access to adequate health care and antenatal care. Additional factors related to poverty also include lack of health education and environmental management leading to vector invasion and colonization [5]. Despite enormous strides made in Chagas vector control, through housing improvements and aggressive insecticidal spraying, and case reduction or even elimination in parts of Latin America [6], important areas of high endemicity persist, including in North America. Confirmatory data are scarce, but, according to some preliminary estimates, Mexico ranks number three, and the United States number seven, in terms of the number of infected individuals with Chagas disease in the Western Hemisphere, where 99% of the cases occur [2]. In Mexico, an earlier national seroprevalence survey reported a rate of 1.6% [7]. However, other reports have provided alternative estimates ranging between 1.0% and 5.9% (i.e., between one to six million cases nationwide) [1], [2]. In the U.S., approximately 300,000 cases are believed to be present [2], although one alternative estimate reports more than 250,000 cases in Texas alone [8], with up to one million or more cases nationwide (Figure 1) [9]. Thus, together with several thousand cases in Canada, there are between 1.5 million (lower estimate) and 7 million (highest estimate) cases of Chagas disease among the 500 million people living in North America. Clearly, there is a need for active surveillance data in order to better refine these prevalence data...