Buggy Blood: Tranfusing the Disease

Chagas disease a growing concern

Susan Abram

September 2009

LA Daily News

Chagas disease, pervasive in South America, is now showing up more and more in the United States, due to globalization and travel, and also presumably, due to lack of initial symptoms, as mentioned in a previous article. As the world is becoming a more global place, it is showing up in North America, Japan, Europe, and Australia. And it is increasingly becoming a problem in blood donation in the United States.

In this article a woman named Maria Gutierrez donates blood, and then received a phone call three days later telling her the blood she donated was useless, because she has Chagas disease. Gutierrez went to several specialists, with no one able to provide her with very much information, and one doctor even saying there was nothing she could do, which in the early phase of Chagas is certainly untrue.

The only place to treat Chagas disease, and where Gutierrez was eventually treated as well, is at Olive View UCLA Medical Center in Sylmar. Patients at the clinic receive a full cardiac work-up, and this early detection has helped to identify nearly 80 cases. Citing the CDC, Doctors Without Borders says there are about 300,000 people living with Chagas in the United States, and in Los Angeles County, one out of every 300 Latino blood donors tests positive for Chagas.

Chagas is truly a neglected disease and remains challenging due to the length of time it remains dormant, making it difficult to treat. Most infections are not discovered until the chronic phase, when treatment is the most challenging. The Drugs for neglected Diseases Initiative is working to develop the first pediatric formulation of a drug to treat the disease, as well as researching possible use of existing drugs originally developed for other diseases to treat Chagas.

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