MyHealthNewsDaily staff
A boy born in Virginia two years ago became the first person in the United States known to have acquired Chagas disease from his mother, according to a new report, describing the case.
The case highlights the need for increased awareness of the disease among health care providers in the United States, said the researchers. The disease occurs mainly in Latin America, but cases in the United States and elsewhere have been increasing, mainly as a result of migration, according to the World Health Organization.
Chagas disease is caused by the parasite Trypanosoma cruzi, which is typically transmitted to humans by bites from insects commonly known as kissing bugs. Though less common, the disease also transmitted congenitally, from mother to child during pregnancy, as was the case with Virginia boy.
While the boy's case was the first to be documented formally, it has been estimated that between 65 and 638 cases of congenital Chagas disease occur in the United States each year, said the Centers for disease control and prevention (CDC) report. This estimate is based on the typical birth rates of women from regions where Chagas disease is endemic, and the fact that the disease in 1 to 5 percent of pregnancies of infected mothers, are sent to the child.
In August 2010 birth mother who had recently immigrated to the United States from Bolivia, by cesarean section when his child was 29 weeks old. The boy had signs of jaundice, and excess fluid around his heart, abdomen and lungs. Child's doctors who did not know the boy had Chagas disease, administered antibiotics for what they believed to be a widespread bacterial infection called sepsis.
Two weeks after the birth, the mother revealed she had been told in Bolivia during a previous pregnancy that she had Chagas disease. After testing her baby boy, doctors found he also had the parasite in his blood. The boy was given a 60-day treatment of benznidazole, a drug for Chagas disease, and was healed.
The case "illustrates, congenital Chagas disease, even when serious, not perhaps recognized, or diagnosis could be delayed due to lack define clinical features, or because the diagnosis is not considered," said today's CDC report.
Chagas disease is estimated to affect about 300,000 people in the United States, most of whom immigrated here.
Doctors in the United States should be aware of the condition so that pregnant women from high-risk areas for Chagas disease can be subjected to screening and identification, says the report. Mothers diagnosed with Chagas disease should be treated for the condition, but only after they have finished breast-feeding, the report said.
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