ATLANTA -- pair U.S. heart transpla...

ATLANTA -- pair U.S. heart transplant patients who died earlier this year had contracted a parasitic tropical disease from their recent organs, health officials reported Thursday.

The pair California men are the fourth and fifth U patients believed to have been infected with Chagas' disease by means of transplants, according to the Center for Disease regulate and Prevention.

most numerous DO NOT GET SICK

Organ donors are covered for Chagas' in South America, where the disease is often more common. No screening standard for Chagas' is licensed in the United States.

The couple men, ages 64 and 73 died at separate looks Angeles hospitals. The infected organs came from single in kind person born in Central America and another who had traveled to Mexico, the CDC reported.

Chagas' disease can cause high febrile disease swelling, enlargement of the melancholy liver and lymph nodes, and inflammation of the heart.

chiefly people infected do not memorize sick, but the disease can be fatal and can be especially dangerous to population with suppressed immune systems. Transplant patients receive immune-suppressing physics to prevent organ rejection.

Chagas' is spread by dint of reduviid bugs. They are called "kissing bugs" because they many times bite people in the face. The bugs' fece contain a parasite that can achieve pushed beneath the skin when persons scratch themselves or rub their views

About 12 million population in Central and South America are infected with Chagas', moreover only 100,000 U.S. residents have it, according to rugged estimates.

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