The Chagas virus is a potentially lethal disease that international health authorities virtually universally agree has been brought to the United States in the flood of “unaccompanied minors” this year.
The United Nations World Health Organization describes Chagas disease as a “potentially life-threatening illness caused by the protozoan parasite, Trypanosoma cruzi (T. cruzi).”
“It is found mainly in endemic areas of 21 Latin American countries,” WHO says, “where it is mostly vector-borne transmitted to humans by contact with faeces of triatomine bugs, known as ‘kissing bugs,’ among other names, depending on the geographical area.”
A 2007 report titled “Chagas Disease: A Latin American Nemesis,” prepared by the Institute for One World Health under a grant donated by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, documented that Chagas disease “is an insidious, potentially fatal parasitic disease that is widespread in Latin America affection 10-14 million or more.”