A recent news article in Medical News Today discussed the risk travelers have and burdens they could suffer from the “negelected tropical diseases” such as filariasis, schistosomes, river blindness and many others.
The GeoSentinel is a global health warning system that is also mentioned in the article. Maintained as a joint venture by the CDC (center for disease control) and ISTM (international society of travel medicine), this is a way for public health practitioners to exchange information on potential outbreaks.
The article sites another publication with this submission:
Filariasis in Travelers Presenting to the GeoSentinel Surveillance Network
Ettie M. Lipner, Melissa A. Law, Elizabeth Barnett, Jay S. Keystone, Frank von Sonnenburg, Louis Loutan, D. Rebecca Prevots, Amy D. Klion, Thomas B. Nutman, for the GeoSentinel Surveillance Network.
This article details filarial infections and rates/risks determined by the GeoSentinel system.
I’m a U.S. citizen in Cusco Peru. In September of 2007 I contracted “Filariasis” in Quicemil Cusco, even though I slept with a mosquito net for eight days straight before I got sick and tested positive microfilia. It’s a small jungle village of about 500 people. Then I spent 75 days in a Lima Hospital for tropical disease. There is no medicine in Peru for the treatment of filariasis, as all medicines that are shipped and free, do not pass “Aduanas”-customs in Peru. Where and how do I get medication that is bought and paid for by the Bill Gates foundation? Thank you for your attention to this matter, I’m very sick and don’t want to return to the states just for medication that might not be available.