Chagas disease causes misery in poor communities around the world. It may lead to 10,000 deaths a year.

Health workers are trying ways to ease the suffering of the infected.

What causes the disease?

Houses in a dusty location are frequently constructed without doors or roofs.

They don’t have power or running water, and residents share their homes with animals.

Unfortunately, the triatomine thrives in these settings.

It is also known as the kissing bug.

Triatomines operate in an unpleasant manner.

The bugs emerge at night to bite exposed skin, commonly on a sleeping human’s face, and feed on the blood of their victims.

The triatomine also defecates or urinates near the bite, and a single-celled parasite carried in the insect’s faeces enters the body when the victim scratches the bite.

The parasite then causes the Chagas disease.

Symptoms narrated by the victim

A victim, Barrera was asleep, while a bug carrying the parasite, bit her, and she became infected.

“I felt pain in my chest,” she recalled.

“I didn’t want food,” while discussing the symptoms.

Now she is better after a two-month course of anti-parasitic drugs.

She was treated free of charge by the Argentine government.

Is the tropical disease ignored?

Chagas disease has been known as the most neglected of all the neglected diseases.

It causes over 10,000 deaths per year.

It affects seven million people worldwide, out of which, some people never receive a treatment.

Why is the disease a challenging foe?

Firstly, diagnosis itself remains extremely challenging.

According to an estimate, fewer than 10% people are actually diagnosed with the illness.

Moreover, many infected people quietly carry the infection without knowing.

It can be termed as a slow-moving time bomb.

It can result in heart failure or gastrointestinal problems even decades after infection.

Maria Jesus Pinazo says, “It is the worst panorama ever for a clinician.”

There is no ideal cure for it

“We lack the ideal drug. It doesn’t exist,” says Oscar Ledesma Patiño, a pediatric specialist at the Chagas Centre in Santiago del Estero.