Rafal, I've forward your question to Krista and told her I would be happy to post a response.
Thanks, Geary From: rafal kedzierski [mailto:rafal...@hotmail.com] Sent: Thursday, December 06, 2012 2:29 PM To: Geary Schindel; texas cavers tc Subject: RE: [Texascavers] Results of testing for Chagas in Kissing bugs in Texas Just throwing gas on the fire of complexity of life, I just want to point out that Trypanosoma cruzi or causitive factor in Chagas disease is not only trypanosome in the environment. Most of them are not directly harmful to H. sapiens. Therefore, before anyone jumps to any conclusion, how specific is the PCR used by Baylor College of Medicine for Trypanosoma cruzi? Where PCR primers used for detection tested against other related protozoa? Have the primers withstood the test of clinical practice? Rafal Kedzierski DFW caver ________________________________ From: gschin...@edwardsaquifer.org<mailto:gschin...@edwardsaquifer.org> To: texascavers@texascavers.com<mailto:texascavers@texascavers.com> List-Post: texascavers@texascavers.com Date: Thu, 6 Dec 2012 14:18:40 -0600 Subject: [Texascavers] Results of testing for Chagas in Kissing bugs in Texas Folks, Back in June, I collected four kissing bugs from the Deep and Punkin preserve in Edwards County, Texas. This was in support of some research being conducted by the National School of Tropical Medicine, Baylor College of Medicine. Two of the bugs were captured in the cabin and two were captured around the porch areas. Here is the email recently sent to me by Kristy Orsburn Murray a researcher at Baylor. We finally were able to develop and establish the PCR for testing the insects for Chagas. We ran the PCRs yesterday. I wanted to let you know that 3 of the 4 kissing bugs were positive, including the blood fed triatomine. It was still alive when we received it, and it had defecated in the Ziploc baggie. We took the feces separate from the insect and also ran PCR, and the feces was positive. This was the insect that said it was found under a rug in one of the cabins. We are running a blood meal analysis on it to see if we can identify the source of the blood meal. If human, do you know who was in that cabin at the time of the collection? Perhaps we should test those of you who might be exposed to these insects. With such a high percentage positive, the risk for transmission of Chagas could be high. Let me know if you have any questions. We are happy to help. Best wishes Kristy I suspect that the results from the bugs collected at the Deep Cabin are not unique to south Texas and that many of these bugs are positive. I have five additional bugs from Bexar County that will be submitted for testing. Chagas is not a nice disease and I suspect that a number of cavers who have camped out in the hill country over the years have been exposed. Below are some links on Chagas information. It is a personal decision on whether you should get tested and where and how you sleep. I'm sure this will create some lively discussions. Geary Schindel http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/local_news/article/Chagas-disease-carrier-may-be-threat-in-Texas-3650719.php (From San Antonio Express News) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chagas_disease (From Wikipedia) http://www.cdc.gov/parasites/chagas/ (From Centers for Disease Control) http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/chagas-disease/DS00956 (From Mayo Clinic) http://www.who.int/topics/chagas_disease/en/ (From World Health Organization)
