3Mar/061
Symptoms of Chagas’ Disease
Chagas disease has two stages: acute and chronic.
Symptoms in the acute phase may only occur in about 1% of Chagas cases, and will generally appear approximately one to two weeks following infection.
Acute Stage Symptoms:
- fever
- facial swelling or swelling around the site of the bite
- enlarged and painful lymph glands and fatigue
- In infants or young children severe brain damage causing death may occur. The symptoms may last for 4-8 weeks before disappearing
In the chronic stage of the disease, symptoms may not appear until 10, 20, 30 or even 40 years following infection
Chronic Stage Symptoms:
- Cardiac problems including cardiomyopathy (or an enlarged heart); altered heart rate or heart rhythm abnormalities, or cardiac arrest
- Esophagus enlargement or increasing size of the large bowel causing difficulties with swallowing or severe constipation
June 4th, 2008 - 21:55
Thank you for your info…i live in south tx and one of my dogs has been diagnosed with chagas. She is only one and a half yr. old. She has never had a sick day in her life until two week ago when she started retaining fluid. That is when we found out she had heart problems…she is still very active and happy and runs around. I am going to have my other dogs checked. I have even been bitten by an assassin bug myself. We have so many here that I don’t know where to begin to protect us. Thanks again for the info.
julie