Chagas spreads to more countries

Chagas, a potentially fatal Tropical disease, killing over 12,000 people a year in Latin America, has been reportedly spreading to the US and even Europe. There are millions of people affected by the disease and the cases are rising, not because the insects carrying the parasite are spreading, but because large numbers of people who are already infected, are migrating from Latin America, The New York Times reported, citing an article published in Science. "It is estimated that up to 25% of people in Latin America may be infected with Trypanosoma cruzi, the parasite that causes Chagas disease. It is related to the trypanosome that causes sleeping sickness in Africa," the article reads. The parasite spreads by the bite of an insect called the reduvid bug or triatomines, also known as the kissing bug. Chagas is considered a disease of poverty because the bugs live in cracks in the walls and roofs of mud, adobe and straw houses, typically found in urban slums in Latin America. The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), is about to initiate a phase I trial to test the safety of a K777, a protease inhibitor, as a potential treatment for Chagas disease. There is no vaccine against Chagas, and the growing cases in the US, Europe, Japan, and other wealthy regions, are drawing attention to the disease as a potential growing market for private investment in new drug development.