A Durango woman working on a master’s degree in photojournalism at Ohio University spent six weeks in southern Ecuador this summer chronicling efforts of small communities to fight a bug that preys on people while they sleep.
“They’re working to combat the transmission of Chagas disease, which affects 11 million people in Central and South America,” Megan Westervelt said. “Probably, very few Americans have heard of the disease, but it’s working its way into the United States.”
Several cases of Chagas have turned up in Texas, Westervelt said.
Westervelt joined members of the Healthy Living Initiative team from the OU Tropical Disease Institute founded in 1987 that is trying to combat the spread of Chagas disease in rural Ecuadorian communities. The project on which Westervelt focused her video camera was carried out in Loja Province in the extreme south of Ecuador.
Chagas disease, also called American trypanosomiasis, is a tropical disease transmitted by a parasite, Trypanosoma cruzi, to people and other mammals through the feces of a blood-sucking insect commonly called the kissing bug, which is similar to the bed bug.
The disease also can be transmitted through blood transfusions, organ transplants and eating food contaminated with the parasites.
Westervelt’s base of operations was in Cariamanga, a city of 17,000 population in the southern tip of Ecuador. She documented the campaign against Chagas in the nearby hamlets of Guara, Chaquizcha and Bella Maria.
Healthy Living Initiative team members, who have done other projects in the communities since 2009, this year used a holistic approach in their endeavor, Westervelt said. They educated people about Chagas disease, fumigated houses and replaced crumbling adobe bricks with better-prepared ones.
They also built a community center, reasoning that a focal point would unite hamlet residents in other common projects, demonstrating that they don’t have to rely on foreigners for their well-being. They also installed a water system.
A Centers for Disease Control website says Chagas disease, caused by the bite of kissing bugs, has acute and chronic phases. The disease is named for Dr. Carlos Chagas, a Brazilian physician who discovered it in 1909.
Kissing bugs, like bed bugs, hide out in daylight hours in crevices and cracks in adobe and palm thatch dwellings, coming out after dark. They bite around the mouth or eyes and, after sucking blood, defecate on their victim. If the victim scratches or rubs the feces into the wound, they can become infected with T. cruzi parasites.
If left untreated, the parasitic infection becomes lifelong and can cause heart problems, including heart failure.
Population shifts have spread Chagas disease beyond rural areas in Latin America, the CDC says. In the United States, where Chagas is found but is not endemic, efforts should focus on preventing transmission.
John Pape, an epidemiologist at the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment, said Chagas doesn’t have to be reported to the health department. It is not a Colorado disease.
“We have bugs in the same family, but they don’t support the parasite,” Pape said. “The parasite doesn’t do well in temperate zones.”
Joe Fowler, an epidemiologist at San Juan Basin Health Department, is well aware of Chagas.
“We counsel travelers about Chagas and other insect-borne diseases every day,” Fowler said. “A vaccine against yellow fever is the only one required for travelers going to certain areas.”
A recent CDC report said an increasing number of people are not getting counseling about the diseases they could encounter during international travel, Fowler said.
United Blood Services in Durango screens for 19 infectious diseases,including Chagas and West Nile virus, Director Nancy Cuming said Friday.
“We also question potential donors about Chagas,” Cuming said. “We ask if they or any relative has been infected.”
“The focus of the Tropical Disease Institute international efforts has been in Ecuador,” Westervelt said. “TDI has done research and partnered with government and nongovernmental organization to combat Chagas since 1992.”
The three communities she observed this summer were chosen for their close proximity to each other, comparative isolation and state of underdevelopment, Westervelt said.
“As potential solutions to preventing the spread of the disease are evolving, it is crucial to document how outside intervention can possibly help affected communities, if those communities do, in fact, perceive it as help,” Weservelt said.
daler@durangoherald.com
