TheConversation: According to an article in the Journal of the American Medical
Association (JAMA), in a Los Angeles clinic treating patients with heart
failure, about 20% of Latin American patients have Chagas disease. What is that?, you might wonder. Chagas is a parasitic infection that is endemic in 21 countries
in Central and South America and affects an estimated 6-7 million
people worldwide. This disease is one of several so-called neglected
tropical infectious diseases that have significant worldwide morbidity
(the incidence of a disease) and mortality. It can, as the JAMA article
suggests, lead to severe health complications. But in the US, the
disease is relatively rare, though incidence is starting to increase.
