tripscan
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- | The wild motor festival that transforms the desert into something | + | ‘Kissing bug’ disease is here to stay in the US, experts say. Here’s why it’s spreading |
- | You hear it before you see it. Hundreds of all-terrain vehicles tearing across the desert, the roar of their engines echoing over the sand dunes. The noise goes all night long, making it impossible to grab any shuteye. | + | |
- | Not that anyone does. | + | Chagas disease, a potentially deadly condition caused by a parasite carried by insects called kissing bugs, should now be considered endemic in the United States, experts say – and without recognition |
- | “There is no sleep in Liwa,” says Ginger Krook, a 23-year-old motorsport enthusiast from the Netherlands. “It’s crazy.” | + | A report on the topic was published last week in the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s journal Emerging Infectious Diseases, and the authors say they hope that growing global attention on the new paper means Chagas could finally get the surveillance, |
- | Each year, the Liwa International Festival draws crowds | + | “We’ve been waiting forever; all of us Chagas people have been waiting for people to recognize this disease is in our communities,” said Dr. Norman Beatty, coauthor of the report and a clinical associate professor at the University |
+ | The World Health Organization considers Chagas a neglected tropical disease, and the Pan American Health Organization says it is endemic – with a constant presence or usual prevalence – in 21 other countries in the Americas, not including | ||
- | Three hours’ drive from Abu Dhabi, the landscape is almost empty for most of the year, save for a new ribbon of blacktop and towering dunes. | + | Chagas largely spreads when triatomine bugs, commonly known as kissing bugs, bite a human while they’re sleeping. The bug defecates in that bite or on a person’s face, and the person unwittingly wipes the feces into their eyes, nose or mouth. The feces can carry a parasite, Trypanosoma cruzi, that causes the disease. |
- | In December, it becomes a dreamscape for motorheads. | + | Chagas can also spread through contaminated food or blood, organ transplants and pregnancy. |
- | “They come together and they drive,” says Krook, who plans to return for her fourth festival this December. “Everything you can think of related to off-road driving, you can find there.” | + | Early symptoms can include fever, body aches, headaches, rash, vomiting and tiredness. They may last weeks or even months after initial infection. |
- | ‘Full throttle or nothing’ | + | According to the CDC, about 20% to 30% of people who’ve been infected develop |
- | The Liwa International Festival has been running for just over two decades. | + | |
- | The Liwa International Festival has been running for just over two decades. Karim Sahib/AFP via Getty Images | + | |
- | Local Emiratis first recognized the motorsport potential of the Liwa Oasis more than two decades ago. They began gathering with their off-road vehicles at Moreeb Dune, the tallest in the region at more than 300 meters (about 1,000 feet). The challenge was simple: reach the top. | + | |
- | An official festival was created in 2004 and has grown steadily. In 2024, it drew more than 600,000 visitors, according to the event’s organizers. Alongside motorsports, | + | If it’s caught early, the disease can be cured with benznidazole or nifurtimox, medicines that kill the parasite. But the drugs become less effective the longer |
- | But the central attraction — racing up the Moreeb Dune — remains the same. | + | In fact, some people who are infected find out some time later, when they donate blood, since the US has been testing its blood supply |
- | + | ||
- | “Everyone watches each other as they go up,” says Krook. “They are waiting | + | |
Related article | Related article | ||
- | Surf-Abu-Dhabi-6.jpg | + | A health inspector holds a beaked bug ( Triatoma dimidiata ) in Carpenter , Department of Francisco Morazan , 20 km north of Tegucigalpa on 17 May 2005. According to official statistics of the Ministry of Health , through the National Program |
- | $150 for a wave: the Abu Dhabi wave pool targeting | + | EL CARPINTERO, HONDURAS: |
- | + | ‘Kissing bug’ disease more deadly than thought | |
- | Spectators cheer drivers on, but the dune is daunting. In Arabic, Moreeb means “terrifying.” | + | |
- | “If your tires are not big enough, your suspension | + | Surveillance |
- | Smaller, less terrifying dunes serve as obstacles | + | Scientists have found kissing bugs in 32 states, the new report says. The blood-sucking insect mostly lives in warmer Southern states, but with climate change causing more bug-friendly temperatures, |
- | © Mapbox © OpenStreetMap Improve this map | + | Scientistst have identified at least 17 states with infected mammals, including Virginia opossums, raccoons, banded armadillos, striped skunks, coyotes |
- | Liwa | + | |
- | It was “this kind of Mad Max-feeling city,” says Christian LeBlanc, 32, a Canadian influencer who attended last year. “There were these huge lights illuminating the dunes, and as we got closer you could see there were these (cars) driving up and down and up and down. We kept getting closer | + | |
- | Mixing with the locals | + | Doctors have reported Chagas cases in humans in eight states: Arkansas, Arizona, California, Louisiana, Missouri, Mississippi, |
tripscan.txt · Last modified: 2025/09/16 23:39 by 188.130.143.94