Don’t Get Kissed


A guide to tackle Kissing bugs
A group of scientists at The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston (UTHealth) has published a guide to battle a fatal disease transferred to humans by a blood sucking insect called kissing bug.
The kissing bug carries the parasite, Trypanosoma cruzi which causes this fatal disease called Chagas disease. Chagas disease is estimated to affect more than 7 million people all around the world. It is often looked at as the silent killer because its symptoms are so difficult to be tracked. At early stages, the disease is treatable but if left undetected and untreated, it can lead to serious complications such as heart failure, an enlarged heart or stroke.
Despite the serious effects it may cause upon the individual, there is still lack of knowledge about this disease and about the insect that carry the parasite as it shows no signs whatsoever.
It's a complete myth that these kissing bugs could be only found in mud huts, they could be seen anywhere. This guide explains in detail how these insects look like and how to avoid them. This guide is intended not only for the use of general public but also for physicians who are often on the frontline of talking with the public about the disease."
The hot summer months are peak season for kissing bug activities.
Recent research has shown a high rate of kissing bugs infected with the  T. cruzi parasites.
Kissing bugs often bite victims around the mouth or eyes while they sleep, thus leading to its name. However, they can bite anywhere on the body.
The mode of transmission of this disease is through the faeces of the insect, which comes in contact with the bite wound. It can also be passed from mother to foetus and through contaminated blood products or even contaminated food. This mysterious disease does not leave about any symptom. If present, it may be a spot or a welt or mild flu-like symptoms. In most cases symptoms are not seen and the disease begin affecting the heart or digestive system of the infected person leading to a fatal disease.


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Is Habitat Hotspots effective for Transmission of Diseases?

Image
Habitat Hotspots: The un-fold of infectious diseases powerfully depends on however habitat characteristics form patterns of between-host interactions. Specifically, habitat heterogeneousness influences patterns of between-individual contacts and thus, illness dynamics. For instance, “ habitat hotspots ”, sites that attract people or social teams over long distances, may be visited by an outsized set of a population. Around hotspots, between-individual contact rates typically increase in frequency, which amplifies disease transmission . In humans, faculties and dealing places are typical samples of hotspots and are shown to accelerate the un-fold of measles, influenza , and SARS. Thus, limiting transmission at hotspots has become a promising strategy for mitigating epidemics (e.g., influenza) though the potency of such methods additionally depends on the role hotspots play relative to alternative sources of local transmission (e.g., influenza). The un-fold of infectious disea
Read more

Is Pneumonia a deadly disease?

Image
Pneumonia is essentially a lung infection that can be serious and life-threatening. The infection can be viral, bacterial or fungal. It causes inflammation in the lungs, wherein alveoli or tiny air sacs inside the lungs get filled with liquid. The key to treating pneumonia and prevent it from getting fatal is early diagnosis and a relatively strong immune system . However, it has to be noted that young children who are weak because of malnutrition are the ones most hit by pneumonia. Pneumonia kills more infants than measles, diarrhea, and malaria combined. Pneumonia has four stages, namely consolidation, red hepatization , grey hepatization and resolution. Symptoms of pneumonia The first symptoms of pneumonia are the same as cold or flu. This is followed by high fever, sputum, chills, and cough. The infection ends in rusty or green phlegm, shortness of breath, chest pain which worsens with taking deep breaths, fatigue and weakness, shortness of breath,
Read more

Genes in Giant viruses shared by no life on earth

Image
As their name suggest, giant viruses are big — as big as bacteria, and more than twice the size of typical viruses. The genome of Giant viruses are more complex than the genomes of simple microbes, and many of these genes of Giant viruses code for proteins that is found only in giant viruses. These so called orphan genes puzzled scientists about where they come from. In three new species of Pandora viruses, a family of giant viruses, it was found out that these genes originated in the viruses themselves. The giant viruses were like factories which churned out novel genes and proteins. However, the origin and purpose of this prolific gene creation is still a mystery. There are four known  giant virus families discovered till date: Molli virus, Mega virus, Pitho virus and Pandora virus. Recently researchers have identified three new members of Pandora virus from samples collected in France, New Caledonia and Australia. And these three new members of Pandora viruses wer
Read more