Chagas disease, a tropical insect-borne disease, is estimated to cost the world about $7 billion a year, according to a study published in The Lancet Infectious Diseases and reported by NPR. The disease was labeled “the new HIV/AIDS of the Americas” in 2012. Most Chagas cases occur in Latin America, but the disease is moving north. The two diseases are similar in that they are chronic conditions requiring long-term, expensive treatment and get transmitted through blood transfusions and during pregnancy.

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