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Source: http://news.sciencemag.org/health/2...s-may-explain-high-rates-deadly-parasite-peru
Guinea pig feasts may explain high rates of deadly parasite in Peru
Lizzie is Science's Latin America correspondent, based in Mexico City.
By Lizzie Wade
16 June 2015 7:15 pm
Chagas disease is fatal, but hard to catch. In order for people to become infected, they need to scratch the spot where a bloodsucking insect known as the kissing bug has both bit them and defecated on them. The itching scratches the feces?loaded with a single-celled parasite known as Trypanosoma cruzi?into the skin, but the process is so inefficient that only one human becomes infected for every 1700 kissing bug bites. So why are nearly 40% of people in some South American communities infected with T. cruzi? At least in Arequipa, Peru, the answer may be guinea pigs, according to a study published online today in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B...
Guinea pig feasts may explain high rates of deadly parasite in Peru
Lizzie is Science's Latin America correspondent, based in Mexico City.
By Lizzie Wade
16 June 2015 7:15 pm
Chagas disease is fatal, but hard to catch. In order for people to become infected, they need to scratch the spot where a bloodsucking insect known as the kissing bug has both bit them and defecated on them. The itching scratches the feces?loaded with a single-celled parasite known as Trypanosoma cruzi?into the skin, but the process is so inefficient that only one human becomes infected for every 1700 kissing bug bites. So why are nearly 40% of people in some South American communities infected with T. cruzi? At least in Arequipa, Peru, the answer may be guinea pigs, according to a study published online today in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B...