(G. Kalajdziev, et al. www.humanrights.dk. Adaptado.)

(G. Kalajdziev, et al. www.humanrights.dk. Adaptado.)

Chagas disease, also known as American trypanosomiasis, is a potentially life-threatening illness caused by the protozoan parasite Trypanosoma cruzi. About 6-7 million people worldwide are estimated to be infected with T. cruzi. The disease is found mainly in endemic areas of 21 continental Latin American countries, where it has been mostly transmitted to humans and other mammals by contact with feces or urine of triatomine bugs (vector-borne), known as kissing bugs, among many other popular names, depending on the geographical area.

Chagas disease is named after Carlos Ribeiro Justiniano Chagas, a Brazilian physician and researcher who discovered the disease in 1909. Chagas disease was once entirely confined to continental rural areas of the Region of the Americas (excluding the Caribbean islands). Due to increased population mobility over previous decades, most infected people now live in urban settings and the infection has been increasingly detected in the United States of America, Canada, and many European and some African, Eastern Mediterranean and Western Pacific countries.

Chagas disease’s transmission is caused by T. cruzi parasites, which are mainly transmitted by contact with feces/urine of infected blood-sucking triatomine bugs. Normally they hide during the day and become active at night when they feed on animal blood, including human blood. They usually bite an exposed area of skin such as the face (hence its common name, kissing bug), and the bug defecates or urinates close to the bite. The parasites enter the body when the person instinctively smears the bug’s feces or urine into the bite, other skin breaks, the eyes, or the mouth. T. cruzi can also be transmitted by consumption of food or beverages contaminated with T. cruzi through, for example, contact with feces or urine of infected triatomine bugs or common opossums. This kind of transmission typically causes outbreaks with more severe cases and mortality; passage from an infected mother to her newborn during pregnancy or childbirth; blood or blood product transfusion from infected donors; some organ transplants using organs from infected donors; and laboratory accidents.

Internet: <who.int> (adapted).

The cabin crew battled to save the passenger

Shocked passengers watched as doctors and cabin crew tried to save the life of a critically ill passenger on a Qantas flight to Sidney on Friday.

A Qantas spokeswoman confirmed that the passenger ________ received tratment during the medical emergency couldn’t survive.

The flight from London, via Singapore, was forced to land in Adelaide because of the incident. No passengers got off the flight while it was in Adelaide.

A witness on board told that everything started with a cabin announcement asking for any doctors on board. There were two passengers with medical training, but nothing could be done to save the passenger. The crew did everything they could, including performing CPR with a doctor on board, but unfortunately the passenger has passed away.

More than 200,000 people ___________ evacuated as a typhoon made landfall on China’s east coast, state media say. Typhoon Yagi hit China’s Zhejiang province shortly before midnight on Sunday packing winds of up to 102km/h, the official Xinhua news agency reports, citing provincial flood control headquarters.

A total of 204,949 people in 10 cities, including Taizhou, Zhoushan, and Wenzhou, have been evacuated and almost 21,000 fishing boats called back to port, it said. The storm will also bring heavy rain and will gradually weaken as it moves slowly inland to the northwest, Xinhua said.

Summer is China’s typhoon season, although casualties ____________ minimised in recent years by early government planning and evacuations from potencial danger zones.