• UGI USER
  • Apr 19, 2023
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World Chagas Disease Day 2023

News: Every year on April 14th, the World Health Organisation (WHO) recognises World Chagas Disease Day to increase public awareness of the little-known illness that primarily affects people in Latin America and millions of other people worldwide.

In 2019, the disease was recognised on this day by the 72nd World Health Assembly.

“Time to integrate Chagas disease into primary health care” is the theme for this year.

According to the WHO, 6-7 million individuals globally are infected with Chagas disease, sometimes referred to as “silent or silenced disease,” which kills about 12,000 people year.

The illness bears the name Carlos Chagas after the doctor who discovered it in a Brazilian youngster in 1909.

It is brought on by the protozoan Trypanosoma cruzi, which is spread by ‘triatomines,’ also known as ‘kissing bugs,’ which infect healthy people by bites or faeces.

Congenital transmission, blood transfusions, organ transplants, eating raw food contaminated with the faeces of infected bugs, and unintentional laboratory exposure are all ways to get it.

It cannot spread by unintentional contact with infected people or animals.

Symptoms include a fever, headaches, rash, inflammatory nodules, nausea, diarrhoea, and pain in the muscles or abdomen. 4

Throughout their lives, 70–80% of people don’t exhibit any symptoms, making early diagnosis difficult.

20 to 30 percent of infections progress to the chronic stage, harming the brain system, digestive system, or heart.