Chagas

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This is Chagas Disease (not the Russian mushroom similarly named chaga, Inonotus obliquus. Chaga mushrooms are used as a health tonic.).

Chargas Disease is a Pandemic, deadly parasite infestation. The kissing fly (Panstrongylus geniculatus) is spreading the disease at an alarming rate across America.

The kissing bug bites a person (or animal) which spreads a parasite (Trypanosoma cruzi). The person or animal is now infected. The first stage is acute only for a short duration and can and be eradicated quickly at that time. Once it goes chronic, the parasite may hide (be dormant for years), then erupt and damage the organ or whatever area it is at. Many people have heart failure (and die) because that was the place that the parasite hid dormant. When the parasite becomes active, it emerges almost like the 1986 movie, Aliens. Please read the external links. Those are the specialists and the doctors.

Kitchen Remedies and Natural Cures for Chagas (insect bite)
Diatomaceous Earth Food Grade only (Swimming pool type is poisonous)

Electricity Zappers

This is such a serious (mortal) illness, and rapidly becoming a Pandemic, that if you think you have it....RUN...don't walk to the closest doctor. You need an infectious disease specialist. We know people using Food Grade DE and Zapper but those people also see doctors. Let your doctor know what you want to do. The doctor should not have any problem with things that cannot hurt you, meaning no side effects.

South American Indians have their own natural cures: http://www.unesco.org/most/bpik22-2.htm

Eat all the foods, supplements, and herbs that clear up Parasites and Fungus and Cancer. Most doctors chuckle when people use food remedies. But they do acknowledge that a healthy diet is always a plus. Go ahead; eat healthy foods and cut out junk foods.

Be sure to read the Parasites page.

Common Pharmacuticals
Antiparasitic treatment is most effective early in the course of infection, but is not limited to cases in the acute phase. Drugs of choice include azole or nitro derivatives, such as benznidazole or nifurtimox. Both agents are limited in their capacity to effect parasitologic cure (a complete elimination of T. cruzi from the body), especially in chronically infected patients, and resistance to these drugs has been reported. Studies suggest antiparasitic treatment leads to parasitological cure in about 60–85% of adults and more than 90% of infants treated in the first year of acute phase Chagas disease. Children (aged six to 12 years) with chronic disease have a cure rate of about 60% with benznidazole. While the rate of cure declines the longer an adult has been infected with Chagas, treatment with benznidazole has been shown to slow the onset of heart disease in adults with chronic Chagas infections. Treatment of chronic infection in women prior to or during pregnancy does not appear to reduce the probability the disease will be passed on to the infant. Likewise, it is unclear whether prophylactic treatment of chronic infection is beneficial in persons who will undergo immunosuppression (for example, organ transplant recipients) or in persons who are already immunosuppressed (for example, those with HIV infection).

Treated with itraconazole: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/9684641

General Information
Chagas disease (also called American trypanosomiasis) is a tropical parasitic disease caused by the flagellate protozoan Trypanosoma cruzi. T. cruzi is commonly transmitted to humans and other mammals by an insect vector, the blood-sucking "kissing bugs" of the subfamily Triatominae (family Reduviidae) most commonly species belonging to the Triatoma, Rhodnius, and Panstrongylus genera. The disease may also be spread through blood transfusion and organ transplantation, ingestion of food contaminated with parasites, and from a mother to her fetus. The symptoms of Chagas disease vary over the course of an infection. In the early, acute stage, symptoms are mild and usually produce no more than local swelling at the site of infection. The initial acute phase is responsive to antiparasitic treatments, with 60–90% cure rates. After 4–8 weeks, individuals with active infections enter the chronic phase of Chagas disease that is asymptomatic for 60–80% of chronically infected individuals through their lifetime. The antiparasitic treatments also appear to delay or prevent the development of disease symptoms during the chronic phase of the disease, but 20–40% of chronically infected individuals will still eventually develop life-threatening heart and digestive system disorders. The currently available antiparasitic treatments for Chagas disease are benznidazole and nifurtimox, which can cause temporary side effects in many patients including skin disorders, brain toxicity, and digestive system irritation. Chagas disease is contracted primarily in the Americas, particularly in poor, rural areas of Mexico, Central America, and South America; very rarely, the disease has originated in the Southern United States. The insects that spread the disease are known by various local names, including vinchuca in Argentina, Bolivia, Chile and Paraguay, barbeiro (the barber) in Brazil, pito in Colombia, chinche in Central America, chipo in Venezuela, chupança, chinchorro, and "the kissing bug". It is estimated that as many as 11 million people in Mexico, Central America, and South America have Chagas disease, most of whom do not know they are infected. Large-scale population movements from rural to urban areas of Latin America and to other regions of the world have increased the geographic distribution of Chagas disease, and cases have been noted in many countries, particularly in Europe. Control strategies have mostly focused on eliminating the triatomine insect vector and preventing transmission from other sources.

It is spreading across America. According to the CDC, it may have already exceeded 300,000 infected (in the USA). See: http://www.cdc.gov/parasites/chagas/

Several people caught chagas from transfusions and organ transplats. The Red Cross has been test for the parasie since 2006. Adding gentian violate to the transfusion blood effectively eradicates the parasites. http://dna.kdna.ucla.edu/parasite_course-old/personal%20stories/nussenzweig/gentian_violet_in_blood_banks.aspx

Complications
In the chronic stage, treatment involves managing the clinical manifestations of the disease. For example, pacemakers and medications for irregular heartbeats, such as the anti-arrhythmia drug amiodarone, may be life saving for some patients with chronic cardiac disease, while surgery may be required for megaintestine. The disease cannot be cured in this phase, however. Chronic heart disease caused by Chagas disease is now a common reason for heart transplantation surgery. Until recently, however, Chagas disease was considered a contraindication for the procedure, since the heart damage could recur as the parasite was expected to seize the opportunity provided by the immunosuppression that follows surgery. It was noted that survival rates in Chagas patients could be significantly improved by using lower dosages of the immunosuppressant drug ciclosporin. Recently, direct stem cell therapy of the heart muscle using bone marrow cell transplantation has been shown to dramatically reduce risks of heart failure in Chagas patients.

Research
Several experimental treatments have shown promise in animal models. These include inhibitors of oxidosqualenecyclase and squalene synthase, cysteine protease inhibitors, dermaseptins collected from frogs in the genus Phyllomedusa (P. oreades and P. distincta), the sesquiterpene lactone dehydroleucodine (DhL), which affects the growth of cultured epimastigote–phase Trypanosoma cruzi, inhibitors of purine uptake, and inhibitors of enzymes involved in trypanothione metabolism. Hopefully, new drug targets may be revealed following the sequencing of the T. cruzi genome. A 2004 in vitro study suggests components of green tea (catechins) may be effective against T. cruzi.

Unknown Epidemic
I received an email about Chagas becoming an epidemic. I did not think that much about it until I saw the picture of the swollen eye. Two of my children had that in the past. I thought they had the flu. I did not go to the doctor because normally the doctors don't do anything (but give aspirin, etc) and charge me money. I did not want to waste money on being told to take aspirin. The doctors think everything is a virus...so they won't prescribe antibiotics. Even for myself, I was sick and asked for antibiotics but was told "NO." I was really sick. I was still sick days later, but why go to the doctor when they won't do anything to help. "I see you; give me money" So a family member got me a full dose of antibiotics (10 days). Don't tell me that it is illegal; it is malpractice to deny me medical care. The American medical care has been reduced to "life and limb" and "acute infectious disease." So now, I have to find some doctor within my medical group that will take the time to see if my children are infected with Chagas Disease.