Chagas disease no longer for the poor

Roberto Briceño León, Venezuelan sociologist and consultant on parasitic diseases for the World Health Organization, gave a lecture entitled “Chagas Disease: from rural disease to urban epidemics” last week at the Second Conference for Strengthening the Teaching of Chagas Disease in Health Sciences. Per cuencarural.com, León explained that Chagas is no longer a disease that affects only the poor and underprivileged, because of social and environmental changes, the disease can be contracted by anyone. Urbanization has brought the disease to larger cities, a lack of blood screening for Chagas has transferred the disease through those that donate blood and deforestation has made the disease transferable orally. Spain and U.S., countries with a high population of Latin American immigrants, have adopted new measures to combat Chagas.
In Latin America:

• 12-14 million people have Chagas disease

• ⅓ of them could die from the disease

• 26 million people are at risk for contracting Chagas

• 20-30% of those that get the parasite get the disease

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