To the Editor: The year 2009 was the 100th anniversary of Carlos Cha-gas's discovery of the disease caused by the parasite Trypanosoma cruzi, now known as Chagas disease. Spread by infected bugs called triatomines, the disease is endemic throughout much of Mexico and Central and South Ameri-ca. An estimated 8–11 million persons in Latin America have the disease (1). T. cruzi infection causes more public health problems with long-term con-sequences in Latin America than any other parasitic disease (2).Although earlier estimates sug-gested that 100,000 infected persons may live in the United States (3), recent data suggest that ≈300,000 persons are infected (4). Most of these persons are unaware that they are infected. Anti-parasitic drugs to treat Chagas disease have not been approved by the US Food and Drug Administration and are only available in the United States through the Centers for Disease Con-trol and Prevention (CDC) for use un-der investigational protocols for com-passionate treatment
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