Ahhhh! Real Monsters! Chaga’s Disease

1. Ahhhh! Real Monsters!Chaga’s Disease • The terrifying, true story of Paul Vogt.

2. A group of us went down to Guatemala for a week during the summer of 2011, I was 18. It was a work and witness trip with our church.

5. Rhdnius prolixus triatomine bug The Kissing Bug

6. First Sign of Attack • Flu-like symptoms about 3 to 4 weeks after we got back: fever, fatigue, aches, rash, diarrhea, and vomiting. • In about 2 weeks, I was all better. • Later on, I found out this was called the acute stage of Chaga’s disease.

7. Chaga’s, the slow, patient killer • Years later, I completely forgot all about the short fit of flu-like symptoms. • That’s when I started noticing the difficulty of swallowing. • I went to my doctor to get checked out.

8. The Doctor Visit • He took several samples of blood and examined my esophagus through an endoscopy. • My doctor told me that it was probably nothing or some minor disorder that is easily treatable.

9. The results • My doctor said that I had Achalasia, which is the inability or difficulty of the esophagus to take down food. • The blood tests show even worse results. It showed that I had Trypanosoma cruzi, a very harmful parasite.

11. Bad goes to Worse • With further inspection, they found that I had cardiac damage, caused by the parasite. This damage was irreversible and will only get worse.

12. Treatment • I was told that if I had found out during what was still the acute phase, medication could have cured me, but the chances are slim at this point. • Two antiparisitic drugs that I could have used are benznidazole and nifurtimox. During the chronic phase, the disease cannot be cured.

13. Treatment Cont. • At this point, we can only fight the manifestations of the disease. This would include surgery on the esophagus to improve the Achalasia or heart surgery or heart transplantation to fight the cardiac damage. Though these will come back as the disease continues to spread and worsen.

14. Life Cycle of Trypanasoma Cruzi • Trypomastigotes are ingested by Triatomine bug from an infected animal or person. • They turn into Epimastigotes in the midgut of the bug and multiply there. • They eventually move to the hindgut and turn into metacyclic trypamostigotes. • The Triatomine bug bites an animal or human and defecates near the wound. • The Trypansomes are rubbed into the wound.

15. Life-Cycle Cont. • Metacyclic tryponastigotes penatrate cells at the bite site. • Inside the cell, they turn to amastigotes, which multiply by binary fission. • Amastigotes turn to trypamastigotes then burst out of the cell into the blood stream. • These will be sucked up by another Triatomine or will repeat the last step.