New AIDS?

Yahoo News- Chagas, a tropical disease spread by insects, is causing some fresh concern following an editorial—published earlier this week in a medical journal—that called it "the new AIDS of the Americas."

More than 8 million people have been infected by Chagas, most of them in Latin and Central America. But more than 300,000 live in the United States.
The editorial, published by the Public Library of Science's Neglected Tropical Diseases, said the spread of the disease is reminiscent of the early years of HIV.
"There are a number of striking similarities between people living with Chagas disease and people living with HIV/AIDS," the authors wrote, "particularly for those with HIV/AIDS who contracted the disease in the first two decades of the HIV/AIDS epidemic."

Both diseases disproportionately affect people living in poverty, both are chronic conditions requiring prolonged, expensive treatment, and as with patients in the first two decades of the HIV/AIDS epidemic, "most patients with Chagas disease do not have access to health care facilities."

Unlike HIV, Chagas is not a sexually-transmitted disease: it's "caused by parasites transmitted to humans by blood-sucking insects," as the New York Times put it. "It likes to bite you on the face," CNN reported.

"It's called the kissing bug. When it ingests your blood, it excretes the parasite at the same time. When you wake up and scratch the itch, the parasite moves into the wound and you're infected."

"Gaaah," Cassie Murdoch wrote on Jezebel.com, summing up the sentiment of everyone who read the journal's report.

Chagas, also known as American trypanosomiasis, kills about 20,000 people per year, the journal said.

And while just 20 percent of those infected with Chagas develop a life-threatening form of the disease, Chagas is "hard or impossible to cure," the Times reports:
The disease can be transmitted from mother to child or by blood transfusion. About a quarter of its victims eventually will develop enlarged hearts or intestines, which can fail or burst, causing sudden death. Treatment involves harsh drugs taken for up to three months and works only if the disease is caught early.

"The problem is once the heart symptoms start, which is the most dreaded complication—the Chagas cardiomyopathy—the medicines no longer work very well," Dr. Peter Hotez, a researcher at Baylor College of Medicine and one of the editorial's authors, told CNN. "Problem No. 2: the medicines are extremely toxic."
And 11 percent of pregnant women in Latin America are infected with Chagas, the journal said.

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wtf?

Mother Of 555-Pound Boy Stays In Jail

GREENVILLE, S.C. -- An Upstate mother accused of putting her 555-pound son in danger was back in court for a bond hearing Friday afternoon.

A judge denied a request to reduce Jerri Gray's $50,000 bond.

Gray's attorney, Grant Varner, spoke on his client's behalf. "If anything, she's guilty of loving her child too much. She did not want to lose her child and I can't honestly blame her," Varner said.

Gray has been charged with unlawful neglect toward a child and custodial interference, after investigators said she fled to Baltimore, Md., with her 555-pound son Alexander Draper to avoid a family court hearing on May 19th.

The 14-year-old was supposed to be taken into protective custody after officials determined that the teenager was considered to be at a critical stage of health risk.

"Supposedly her son has been gaining a half a pound a day. How and why - we can't really explain that. My client has asserted to me that it's not because of the food she feeds him. He eats a fairly balanced diet," Varner said.

But prosecutor Samantha Adair told the judge Gray had not complied with DSS guidelines to help her son.

"The victim even had a scholarship to attend a hospital in New Hampshire for which she refused to send her son," Adair said. "So DSS has a completely different story that she's been very non-compliant with their program."

The judge felt Gray was a flight risk again and refused to lower the bond.

Alexander is in foster care through DSS, but Gray's attorney said he'll try to have him placed with family.

What Happened, Jay?

Jay Leno hospitalized; 'Tonight Show' tapings canceled

LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- TV talk show host Jay Leno fell ill and checked himself into a Los Angeles, California, hospital on Thursday, his representative said.

Tracy St. Pierre would not disclose the nature of Leno's illness.

Leno will be 59 on Tuesday.

NBC canceled tapings of "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno" scheduled for Thursday and Friday, she said.

The network will rerun the March 26 show on Thursday, which features a musical performance by Prince and interviews with actors Paul Giamatti and Emma Roberts, according to the show's Web site.

Actor Ryan Reynolds, animal trainer Jules Sylvester and swing band Big Bad Voodoo Daddy had been booked for Thursday's show.

CNN's Anderson Cooper, anchor of "Anderson Cooper 360," was scheduled to appear on Friday's show.

The network did not announce which show would be broadcast on Friday.