A little-known but potentially deadly parasite from Latin America has become one of the latest threats to the blood and organ supplies in the United States, it was reported on Thursday.

The situation is especially serious in Los Angeles, with one in 3,800 donors in the L.A. area tested positive for Chagas, a deadly disease that is mainly found in Latin America, according to the Los Angeles Times.

The parasite has become one of the latest threats to the blood and organ supplies in the United States, especially in Los Angeles, where many donors have traveled to affected countries, said the report, quoting health officials.

Last year, two heart transplant patients at different Los Angeles hospitals contracted the parasitic disease, causing health authorities to issue a national bulletin, said the report.

Within months, both patients subsequently died, although not directly from Chagas, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The parasite, which is generally passed to humans from a blood-sucking insect that looks like a striped cockroach, can feed over years on tissues of the heart and gastrointestinal tract. After decades, tissues can be eroded so much that the organs fail.

Insect transmission of the parasite in the United States is rare, but public health and blood bank officials have been concerned about its increasing prevalence in the blood supply.

In 1996, using an experimental test, the American Red Cross found that one in 9,850 blood donors in the L.A. area tested positive for the parasite, Trypanosoma cruzi. Two years later, it was one in every 5,400. By 2006, a more refined test detected the parasite in one in 3,800 donors, according to figures provided by the paper.

About 10 percent to 30 percent of infected people develop symptoms of chronic disease, the paper quoted experts as saying.

By contrast, HIV, which blood banks screen for, shows up in one of every 30,000 donors, Susan Stramer, executive scientific officer for the Red Cross, told The Times.

If caught early, strong anti-protozoal drugs such as nifurtimox can bring the parasite to undetectable levels or, in some cases, eliminate it entirely, said the paper.

If the parasite is given the chance to multiply over years or decades, however, those infected may have to be treated with heart-regulating drugs or get a pacemaker or heart transplant, according to the paper.

Source: Xinhua