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County health officials\u00a0have\u00a0confirmed\u00a0the region\u2019s first locally\u00a0acquired\u00a0case of Chagas\u00a0disease,\u00a0identified\u00a0during routine blood\u00a0donation\u00a0screening\u00a0in a donor\u00a0without symptoms.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Chagas is much more common in rural areas of Latin America, where the insect that spreads the infection, the kissing bug, hides in homes made of mud and straw. The bug species found in San Diego County typically lives in rodent nests, making camping and outdoor exposure potential risk factors.\u00a0 \u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIdentifying a locally acquired Chagas\u00a0case reminds us that\u00a0this disease\u00a0is not limited to Latin\u00a0America,\u201d\u00a0said Dr.\u00a0Sayone Thihalilopavan, County Public Health Officer. \u201cOur priority is making sure residents,\u00a0and healthcare providers have\u00a0the\u00a0information they need to stay protected.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Early Chagas infection most often has no or only mild symptoms, consisting of a flulike illness with fever, headache, cough, abdominal pain or swelling at the bite site. People who have lived in endemic countries may have been infected years ago. If untreated, the disease can also be spread to infants during pregnancy. \u00a0<\/p>\n
Approximately, 30 to 40 percent of infected people will go on to develop serious heart and gastrointestinal complications years to decades later.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The County made Chagas disease locally reportable in 2024 to raise awareness of this important disease. Since then, the County has already received 22 reports, four of which were confirmed. This fourth confirmed case marks the first to be locally acquired. \u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
County Public Health\u00a0continues to\u00a0work\u00a0closely with healthcare providers to investigate\u00a0cases,\u00a0monitor\u00a0transmission\u00a0and provide clinical resources.\u202f\u202f\u00a0<\/p>\n
Health officials recommend\u202ftravelers to areas where Chagas is endemic wear protective clothing and insect repellant, use insecticide-treated bed nets, sleep indoors, and avoid eating unpeeled or uncooked fruits and vegetables.\u202f\u202fPeople who have lived in Latin American should also consider being screened, especially pregnant women.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Anyone experiencing symptoms that\u00a0may\u00a0be related to Chagas disease\u00a0should\u00a0contact a healthcare provider.\u00a0More\u00a0information is\u00a0available\u00a0the\u00a0County\u2019s<\/a>\u00a0Chagas and kissing bugs webpages<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Reading Time: < 1 minute County health officials\u00a0have\u00a0confirmed\u00a0the region\u2019s first locally\u00a0acquired\u00a0case of Chagas\u00a0disease,\u00a0identified\u00a0during routine blood\u00a0donation\u00a0screening\u00a0in a donor\u00a0without symptoms.\u00a0…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":748085,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[80047,97,80048],"class_list":["post-748084","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health","tag-chagas","tag-health","tag-kissing-bug"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/748084","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=748084"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/748084\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/748085"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=748084"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=748084"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=748084"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}