Leave your feedback Share Copy URL https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/neglected-infections-resurface-among-america-s-poor Email Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Pinterest Tumblr Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Transcript In poor rural areas, inner cities, and among Latin American immigrants, exotic diseases classified by the CDC as "neglected infections" are now affecting millions of people. As Jeffrey Kaye reports, the rarer the illness, the harder it is to find treatment. Read the Full Transcript Notice: Transcripts are machine and human generated and lightly edited for accuracy. They may contain errors. JEFFREY KAYE: Bugs, infections, and disease-causing parasites that most people think are restricted to developing countries are right here in the U.S., in poor rural areas, in inner cities, and among Latin-American immigrants, undetected by millions of victims and their doctors.Maira Gutierrez, a native of rural El Salvador and now an executive secretary at a Los Angeles movie studio, didn't know she had Chagas disease until blood she donated tested positive. It then took 10 years for her to find any place that offered treatment. MAIRA GUTIERREZ: I stopped. I gave up on it. And I just did a lot of research online. I didn't know anything until I got here. JEFFREY KAYE: According to the Centers for Disease Control and prevention, 300,000 people in this country have Chagas, which can be fatal. The CDC is studying bugs from Latin America that feed off blood and deposit the parasites they carry in open wounds.Chagas disease can also be spread by blood transfusions, organ transplants, and during pregnancy. DR. SHEBA MEYMANDI: You know, your blood pressure is up. JEFFREY KAYE: Eventually, in 2007, Gutierrez learned that the only clinic in the nation specializing in the treatment and diagnosis of Chagas disease had opened near her. By then, she was experiencing heart palpitations. MAIRA GUTIERREZ: I think, within a week, I was here and did all the testing for me, my kids. And that's how I started my treatment. JEFFREY KAYE: Her doctor, Sheba Meymandi, an L.A. County cardiologist who runs the clinic, says chest pains and palpitations are a sign that the parasite has gotten to the heart.DR. SHEBA MEYMANDI, cardiologist: So, you develop a massive heart that loses its function. And you develop heart failure. JEFFREY KAYE: Compared to a normal heart, the pump in a Chagas-infected heart has to work harder. DR. SHEBA MEYMANDI: The squeezing muscle — the heart is a muscle. It's a pump. It squeezes. JEFFREY KAYE: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. DR. SHEBA MEYMANDI: It stops squeezing. It has reduction in ability to squeeze. JEFFREY KAYE: Why? DR. SHEBA MEYMANDI: Because the parasites infiltrate the muscle fibers… JEFFREY KAYE: Right. DR. SHEBA MEYMANDI: … and destroy muscle fibers. MAIRA GUTIERREZ: It basically feels like it's just — you know, your — your breathing gets a little heavier. You feel like your heart is just going to — wants to come out.