I’m a lousy blogger, I know. Or at least not a very consistent one. Over a month has passed since my last post, and there’s really not much to new in my world. Rainy season is still not over, in fact, rain is falling in sheets outside the window as I type. The rains have been so severe and have lasted so long that the country is actually in a state of emergency due to flooding. On a recent trip to my mailstop, the road was a mess, with tons of mudslides and potholes. I am headed up to Quito tomorrow, and am not exactly looking forward to the bus ride, since it’s supposed to take longer than the usual 13 hours from Loja. Hooray!
On March 20th, we celebrated 9 months in-country, which means that 1/3 of my service is over. We were pretty excited about that, so we threw a 9-months party.



Recently, I spent a week helping a Brazilian graduate student from Ohio University conduct focus groups on Chagas disease in rural communities around my town. I’m helping out the Catholic University of Ecuador (PUCE)/Ohio University with a Chagas research project that they have been conducting for several years. The project is a joint venture between PUCE and OU, led by an Ecuadorian scientist at Ohio.

Here’s the quick and dirty on Chagas: Chagas is a fatal tropical disease transmitted by the parasite Trypanosoma cruzi. The vector for Chagas is an insect called the Reduviid bug, more commonly known as “the kissing bug.” The bug, or chinchorro as we call it in Spanish, bites humans while they are sleeping and deposits its feces, containing the T. cruzi parasite, next to where it has fed. When the person wakes up in the morning and scratches the bite, this spreads the parasite into the bloodstream, and is thus infected. There are three stages of Chagas, the first of which is known as the acute stage, when people exhibit flu-like symptoms (fever, headache) and the heart and spleen begin to enlarge. This is the only stage where it is possible to cure the disease. The second, or latent phase, of the disease is where the walls of various body organs deteriorate; this phase can last up to 20 or 30 years while the infected person may be completely unware that they have the disease. The last phase is death, usually due to heart failure. There is currently no vaccine for Chagas. The disease was discovered in Brazil, where it has largely been eradicated. In Ecuador, however, there are an estimated 3 million people with Chagas, so it’s definitely a public health problem. The Ecuadorian Ministry of Public Health in tandem with PUCE has begun a campaign of eradication and prevention over the past several years, but it’s an uphill battle, largely because those most susceptible are largely unaware of its etiology or how to prevent it.

Sorry to babble on about Chagas, but it’s something that’s of great interest to me and hopefully I’ll get to work with the team from the Catholic University when they come down to work in my area this summer.