300K in US have potentially fatal tropical disease
(NEWSER) - An insect-borne disease many people have never heard of is quickly becoming the "new AIDS of the Americas," researchers warn. Chagas disease, caused by parasites carried by blood-sucking insects, infects up to 8 million people in the Americas. Many carriers never show symptoms but close to a quarter eventually develop potentially fatal enlarged hearts or intestines. Most sufferers live in Mexico, Central America, Colombia, Venezuela, and Bolivia, but there are some 300,000 in the US, many of them immigrants, the New York Times reports. The number of cases in European countries, now home to many Latin American immigrants, is also on the rise. More»
