Stronger Treatment Can be More Efficient in Curing Chagas Disease, Study Suggests

(Photo: Polina Tankilevitch)
Fever may occur in the acute phase of Chagas Disease alongside body aches and fatigue.

University of Georgia's (UGA) Center for Tropical and Emerging Global Diseases researchers have found that a more thorough, less recurrent medication can cure the infection that causes Chagas Disease. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Chagas disease is caused by a parasite called Trypanosoma cruzi (protozoan parasite), transmitted through animals and humans by insect vectors only found in the United States.

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A data by the World Health Organization (WHO) shows that about 6 to 7 million people worldwide, mostly in Latin America, were infected with Trypanosoma cruzi. The organization added that the Triatomine bug, a species of blood-sucking insect, carries the protozoan parasite.

CDC stressed that treatment for Chagas disease should be immediately administered to people diagnosed early in the progression (acute phase) of infection, babies with congenital infections, and those with suppressed immune systems. They also emphasized that the medication may also help patients with lingering infection.

According to the University of Georgia, a single dose of Benznidazole is highly effective in killing more than 90% of the parasites. However, the research team found out that the remaining parasites enter the dormancy stage, and they hypothesized that intermittent treatment would do the job. UGA Department of Cellular Biology Regents' Professor Rick Tarleton argued that giving a drug twice daily when the remaining dormant parasites are insensitive to the medication does not make sense.

According to UGA Today, the researchers found that giving as little as two-and-a-half times the typical daily dose of Benznidazole, once a week for 30 weeks, annihilated the infection to the traditional daily dose once a week.

The study used three mice models with Chagas disease. The mice were administered 2.5 to 5 times the standard daily dose benznidazole immediately eliminated actively replicating parasites and ultimately eradicated the mice's dormant parasite pupation. Tarleton said that with light-sheet fluorescence microscopy, a broad view of potentially any tissue in the model will allow for a dependable assessment of parasite load persistence or gives you an exceptional view of the infection. Tarleton said that the discovery of new drugs and better drugs should continue.

What are the Symptoms of Chagas Disease?

In an article, the CDC stated that Chagas Disease has two phases, namely the acute phase and the chronic phase. During the acute phase, CDC said that a person might have no symptoms like fever, fatigue, body aches, headaches, rash, loss of appetite, diarrhea, and vomiting during the first weeks or months of infection. These symptoms are similar to other illnesses. That is why most people do not immediately identify that the T. Cruzi parasite infects them.

However, the CDC stressed that an expert would identify other signs of infection, such as mild enlargement of the liver or spleen. Chagoma or swelling of the bite where the parasite entered the body also occurs, and sometimes Romaña's sign or swelling of the eyelid near the bite due to accidental rubbing of the bug poop in the eye.

According to the CDC, the chronic phase can last for decades, or sometimes a lifetime develops chronic illnesses such as Cardiac complications and Gastrointestinal complications, in which approximately 20-30% of infected people develop.

These complications may occur if immediate medication is not administered to the parasite victim, and advancements through research like the University of Georgia have seen will change the game with Chagas Disease.

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