3min chapter

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Ep 81 Chagas disease: The Reverse Triple Discovery

This Podcast Will Kill You

CHAPTER

How Far Off Are We Now?

Carlos shragas recognized all the way back in 19 o nine the public health relevance of american trapanisamiasis. But it wasn't until the 19 eighties that country wide surveys were conducted using standardized protocols. The overall ecology of this disease is so complex, with so many different wild life and domestic mammal species involved. This growing awareness of the enormous problem that shagasisis poses did help lower the incidents of disease in some places.

00:00
Speaker 1
For example, an instance of medicalized torture in texas, a researcher named arrone pacanian crushed some kissing bugs and smeared them into the eye of a black man in his twenties who was likely a patient at austin state hospital formerly known as the texas state lunatic lum a, just to study the progression of disease and how long this person would remain a with like circulating parasites. What?
Speaker 6
Yes.
Speaker 1
So the symptoms of the the person did show symptoms of disease, and eventually they recovered and were declared tripan om free. But, ahem, yet, the study continues to be cited. What
Speaker 5
i know.
Speaker 1
So carlos shragas recognized all the way back in 19 o nine the public health relevance of american trapanisamiasis. But it wasn't until the 19 eighties that country wide surveys were conducted using standardized protocols, and a reliable estimate of the number of people infected and at risk could be even estimated. And those numbers were often shocking. I'm not going to go through all of them, butnd i'll throw a few out there. So from like 20 % in bolivia, to 20 % of rural chile, and up to 50 % in parts of rural venezuela, shagus was a much bigger problem than i think anyone
Speaker 6
had any idea about. I feel like that's still true.
Speaker 1
Gat, definitely. And around the same time, the h i v aids pandemic revealed that tripanisoma cruse could be reactivated in am compromise people, and proved to be a huge complication there. And this growing awareness of the enormous problem that shagasisis poses did help lower the incidents of disease in some places, such as through like the southern cone initiative and other pushes for eradication and control. And the existence of the somewhat effective drug that's used, think its bens nighdazzlebut
Speaker 2
how close it,
Speaker 1
which was introduced in 19 66. These, these things also helped, but we're still a long way off.
Speaker 2
But
Speaker 1
exactly how far off are we? Aaron, oh,
Speaker 2
what a good question. Let's get into it right after the preag
Speaker 3
it's
Speaker 2
interesting, aaron, because despite just how, when you think about it, just how inefficient the transmission cycle really is in terms of trying to get the poop of this bug somewhere near a bite wound, the overall ecology of this disease is so complex, with so many different wild life and domestic mammal species involved.

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