It’s a naturally occurring disease,
folks, not a left wing plot

Many on the so-called “alt-right” (and on the traditional right as well) want to blame today’s immigrants for bringing in “foreign” diseases, and Barack Obama for bringing in the immigrants. The disease accusation is one that’s been leveled at every wave of immigrants throughout our history. One of those disease threats is Chagas.

Chagas is a parasitic disease carried by a large and particularly nasty looking bug called Vinchuga (sometimes Vinchuca): scientific name: Triatoma infestans. It’s currently endemic in Latin America, especially in rural areas – my wife and I first learned about it when traveling in Bolivia – and has more recently been found in the United States, especially in the southwest.

Its habits are nasty, too. It bites its victims at night, while they are sleeping, and its saliva contains the Chagas parasite. The disease is particularly insidious, often causing few symptoms for many years, while the organisms multiply throughout the victim’s system. We were told by our Bolivian friends that the bug was not found in the United States. That was probably not true even then, but it’s definitely not true now. Chagas is expanding its range in the U.S. Southwest, and working its way north.

Some of those looking for reasons to oppose immigration have blamed immigrants and asylum seekers for bringing in the disease – and President Obama for bringing in the immigrants. That makes no sense: Chagas is not contagious from person to person, nor does the bug hang around on its victims like a flea. Some immigrants may have the disease, but there is no way that they can spread it others. The only “immigrants” to blame are the bugs themselves, expanding their range, almost certainly because of global climate warming – something conservatives may have a hard time accepting, but that’s what the science says.

Here’s just one of the fake news bulletins about Chagas from fantasy nightmare land. I’m not including the name of the site or any links as I usually do, since I’m not interested in helping these folks boost their hit count. (Note: the highlights were in the original, not added by me.).

“Obama’s legacy includes more than the recklessly irresponsible if not deliberate importation of Ebola and enterovirus D-68 into the USA. Let’s not forget Chagas disease: Barack Obama has brought 60,000 children from these countries into the U.S. in this year. Obama not only brought them in, almost certainly helping to coordinate their transport up through Mexico…He quickly distributed the potential vectors to all 50 states and even the US Virgin islands before they could be deported…Chagas disease – thanks Barack!”

Another site features a video showing someone in a grinning Obama mask wandering through a downtown neighborhood putting up posters that say “Halt flights from hot zones now! SECURE THE BORDER!” and a third site, headed “OBOLA,” warns that “Dogs are Dying After Eating THIS Bug That is Now Found in 28 States.” [I don't know if dogs eat Vinchugas, though I doubt it, but they get infected by being bitten.]

For the record, although the Right seems to be suggesting that Chagas has been a government secret until now, it’s been known about and publicly discussed for years. It was first described by Brazilian physician/epidemiologist, Carlos Chagas in 1909 and came to be seen as a major threat to public health in the 1960’s. More recently, The New York Times, Atlantic Magazine, and Science Magazine all carried articles about it in 2011 and 2012, which was when I started more seriously looking into it. (See also this later NYTimes article on “the new plague of poverty” which looks at several tropical diseases now endemic in the U.S.)

Though long thought to be a problem only in South and Central America, environmental writer Jennie Erin Smith writes that “Texas, along with much of the rest of the Southwest, has been an endemic Chagas region since people began looking. Local transmission has been documented since 1955…Still, the idea of Chagas as a foreign illness persisted for half a century.” Her article this month in The New Yorker’s “Elements” blog discusses the increasing spread of the Vinchuga bug in the U.S. Southwest, focusing on an outbreak of Chagas at Lackland Air Force Base, in San Antonio, Texas, among both soldiers and the dogs at the DOD’s canine school at the base. See also the outstanding coverage of this outbreak by the Dallas Morning News.

Immigrants didn’t cause the problem;
neither did Barack Obama,

…and insects are not the only parasites
responsible for the chagas crisis.

An article in The Atlantic a year ago noted: “After dropping $2 million on a Wu-Tang Clan album, the pharmaceutical entrepreneur Martin Shkreli has found a new project: making an essential treatment unaffordable for poor immigrants from Latin America…He’s now the CEO of KaloBios Pharmaceuticals, which recently announced its plans to submit benznidazole, a treatment for Chagas disease…for Food and Drug Administration approval next year.”

In Latin America, a course of treatment currently costs from $60 to $100. U.S. patients can apply to the Center for Disease Control to receive it free. If approved by the FDA, Shkreli initially planned to price the same course of treatment at almost $100,000. Shortly after that, however, Shkreli was arrested for securities fraud and KaloBios went bankrupt. After emerging from bankruptcy since then, the company has announced that it still plans to acquire the drug, but will institute “a reasonable and transparent pricing policy.” What that will be remains to be seen.

Meanwhile, according to the Wall Street Journal, Shkreli “has sold his remaining stake in KaloBios Pharmaceuticals Inc., severing his ties with the company he once led, as the small drugmaker seeks to distance itself from its former chief executive,” Poor guy, he only got $5.9 million for what WSJ estimated was “a stake worth about $4.4 million” two months earlier.

For those interested in this issue,
the links below may also be of interest:
A while back, we heard about a new approach to fighting Chagas, especially in housing with adobe or unpainted wood walls. It uses an insecticide-containing paint and has apparently been very effective. As far as I know, it has not been adopted anywhere in the U.S. That may be because the inventor, Spanish Chemist Pilar Mateo, has declined to partner with a large drug company because, she says: “I didn’t want profit motives dictating how this important tool was brought to the world.” That’s a refreshing, but also depressing, contrast to Mr. Shkreli and the American pharmaceutical industry.

This youtube link takes you to some interesting videos on Chagas, including several from Doctors Without Borders. If interested, don’t click away after the first one.

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This is a quick post to help spread the word about an initiative I’ve just learned about. One of the physicians I interviewed during production of my documentary, REFUGE: Caring for Survivors of Torture, has asked me to help spread the word about this powerful statement of concern from a growing number of healthcare professionals and others.

From America’s Healers: 

Framed as “a letter to our patients in the Trump era,” from America’s healers, the statement reflects the alarm felt by many of us following the Trump election, and our worries about what a right wing victory will mean for healthcare and mental health workers and – more importantly – the patients and clients who depend on them for care.

In this new and uncertain time in American history, we healthcare professionals feel a special responsibility….For our patients, poverty, violence, and marginalization are not mere abstractions but instead harsh realities. As a result, we feel compelled to act and advocate against any threat to our patients’ well-being. The policies proposed by the incoming administration under President-elect Donald Trump may pose just such a threat.

Among the eight beliefs affirmed by the statement, the final one is, “that torture and human rights violations have no place in American society…we stand firm in opposing all forms of torture or ‘enhanced interrogations’ no matter the setting or supposed justification.”Should any readers question whether this is a serious concern in the event of a Trump presidency, recall his statement during the Presidential debates: “I’d bring back waterboarding,” he said on February 7th, “and I’d bring back a hell of a lot worse than waterboarding.”

NOTE: I had to go out for a few hours before finishing this post. In that time, more than 500 additional people had signed on. The total as of midnight, November 17^th stood at more than four thousand names.

Take a look at the statement, and if you’re in any way involved in healthcare, mental health work, or social services, please consider adding your signature and voice.

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Honoring torture survivors
and those who stand with them…

In 1987 the United Nations recognized this day, June 26th, as an International Day in Support of Victims of Torture. We’re a year short of the 30th anniversary of that declaration and, as a nation, we have made substantial advances toward the goal the day represents.

One of those is verbal: we try to think and speak about people who have been tortured as survivors, not victims, emphasizing their resilience, and their futures, not just their pasts. That’s what I experienced myself while interviewing torture survivors and the people who work with them for my documentary, REFUGE: Caring for Survivors of Torture.

The men, women, and children who have been able to make it to the United States are remarkable, and we are lucky to have them as new citizens. But they are a tiny fraction of the millions of people throughout the world who are subjected to torture and violence every day, most of whom don’t have the personal or financial resources to escape.

There are a number of terrific organizations around the U.S. working directly with torture survivors, but it’s a regrettably small number – fewer than 40 the last time I checked – and most struggle for the finances to keep going. I’ve listed below the contact information for five of those that I worked with when making REFUGE. The sixth lost its local government funding and folded not long after we filmed there.

A longer list is available on the Refuge Media Project website. All of these groups could use your support. (Note: it’s been a while since I’ve been able to update this list, so please let me know if you spot any errors.)

This more comprehensive list from the Survivors of Torture center at New York’s Bellview Hospital lists 34, but I believe that at least two of these are no longer functioning.

Organizations Featured in the Documentary

• Asylum Network, Physicians for Human Rights Cambridge, Massachusetts. PHR’s Asylum Network mobilizes physicians and mental health professionals to conduct evaluations of asylum seekers in order to document the forensic evidence of torture and abuse.
• Atlanta Asylum Network, Institute of Human Rights Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia. A student-founded organization of health professionals and student case managers who volunteer their time to assist survivors of torture seeking asylum in the United States.
• Center for Victims of Torture Minneapolis, Minnesota. CVT works to heal the wounds of torture on individuals, their families and their communities, and offers training to health care providers, educators and others. The Center also advocates for the investigation and abolition of torture worldwide.
• Harvard Program in Refugee Trauma Cambridge, Massachusetts. HPRT is a multi-disciplinary program that has been pioneering the health and mental health care of traumatized refugees and civilians in areas of conflict and natural disasters for over two decades.
• Torture Abolition and Survivors Support Coalition International Washington, DC. TASSC is a network of torture survivors who advocate and lobby to end torture and demand government accountability in the United States and abroad.

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An interesting piece in today’s Glasgow Evening Times points to a growing crisis in handling the influx of refugees and immigrants seeking asylum in Scotland. The United States, because of its geographic isolation, has not experienced the vast number of migrants now fleeing conflicts in the middle east, Asia and North Africa to seek refuge in Europe and the UK. Watching the, on the whole, remarkably welcoming response of those nations to the crisis presents a stark contrast with the recent anti-immigrant comments from some of our Presidential aspirants.

Glasgow GPs are “maxed out” due to escalating numbers of refugees and asylum seekers

Ex-GITMO Commander Avoids Torture Probe

As reported by The Intercept, the former commander of the U.S. prison and “interrogation” center at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, has refused to obey a French court’s subpoena to testify on his role in the detention and torture of two French citizens, Mourad Benchellali and Nizar Sassi. French authorities acquitted both men of terrorism charges in 2009.

U.S. Army General Geoffrey Miller (retired) did not show up for questioning, as had been predicted by Benchellali’s attorney, William Bourdon, who noted that “U.S. civilian and military officials refuse to be held to account by [foreign] judges.” Though he will be requesting an arrest warrant for Miller, the warrant cannot be enforced unless the General enters France. The judge in the case has requested relevant documents regarding the plaintiff’s imprisonment at Guantánamo, but has not received a response from the United States.

In an email to The Intercept an attorney for the non-profit Center for Constitutional Rights said, “Miller’s absence speaks volumes about the Obama administration’s continued unwillingness to confront America’s torture legacy…The administration not only refuses to investigate U.S. officials like Miller for torture, it apparently remains unwilling to cooperate when other countries seek to uphold their international obligations to prosecute torturers.”

With this as a backdrop, here’s
some other recent news from GITMO:

Saudi citizen and British resident Shaker Aamer was picked up by bounty hunters and delivered to US forces in December 2001 during the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan, where he had been working. After his “rendition” to our prison at Guantanamo, Aamer was held without trial, despite repeated demands by the British government and others for his release. Though “approved for transfer” by both the Bush Administration (2007) and Obama’s (2009), Aamer was not freed until October 30th of last year – after more than 13 years without ever being charged. Because of his participation in protests against detention conditions, he had spent much of that time on hunger strikes and in solitary confinement, where he was said to have lost more than 40% of his body weight. At one point in 2011, his lawyer said, “I do not think it is stretching matters to say that he is gradually dying in Guantánamo Bay,” yet the US denied requests for an independent medical examination.

Tariq Ba Odah has not been so fortunate. As recounted in a recent Reuters article, Odah been has imprisoned at Guantánamo for almost 14 years, though he was cleared for release by U.S. military, intelligence, and diplomatic officials five years ago. Despite an agonizing campaign by the Obama administration and the State Department to arrange for his release, every effort by to arrange his transfer to another country has been blocked or delayed by the Pentagon.

Reuters goes into extensive and disturbing detail – on this case and a number of others – regarding the lengths to which the military have gone to frustrate administration efforts, as well as on its motives. “Partly as a result of the Pentagon’s maneuvers, it is increasingly doubtful that Obama will fulfill a pledge he made in the 2008 presidential election to close the detention center…Obama criticized President George W. Bush for having set up the prison for foreigners seized in the ‘War on Terror’ after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the U.S., and then keeping them for years without trial…Today, with little more than a year remaining in his presidency, it still holds 107 detainees.”

“Military officials…continue to make transfers more difficult and protracted than necessary, administration officials said. In particular, they cite General John F. Kelly, in charge of the U.S. Southern Command, which includes Guantánamo. They said that Kelly, whose son was killed fighting the Taliban in Afghanistan, opposed the president’s policy of closing Guantánamo, and that he and his command have created obstacles for visiting delegations.”

…and a view from home:

In a recent column, Frida Berriganreflects on an item in her local, Connecticut, newspaper about the return of a local National Guard unit from the Guantánamo Naval Base: “One woman…told the reporter, ‘We have been apart for 10-and-a-half months. It’s been a really long year by myself, and we’re so excited to be back together finally.’ There were balloons, flowers, tears and children in adorable outfits…” Berrigan acknowledges that she has no way of knowing if any of these Guard members “had anything to do with the Muslim men who have been held there in extremis for 14 years.” Yet, she notes, “as the Connecticut guards were preparing to come home, three men were supposed to leave Guantánamo as well. But they were not welcomed home with flowers and balloons. They did not return to their home countries.”

She mentions Shaker Aamer: “At Guantánamo, he was beaten, tortured and almost asphyxiated. He was held in solitary confinement for 360 days at one point during his imprisonment…Aamer met his 13-year-old son Faris for the first time on October 31, 2015. His older children are now young adults. He told the BBC, “I left them when they were little tiny kids, hugging them, carrying them all the time. And now they are grown up…They look at me and they’re just trying to know who is this person?”

“Tariq Mahmoud Ahmed al Sawah was born in Egypt and sent to Bosnia…Abdul Aziz Abdullah Ali al Suadi, a Yemeni, was resettled in Montenegro. They join a growing cadre of displaced former Guantánamo prisoners, trying to make a life for themselves in new and unfamiliar countries after more than a decade of imprisonment, torture and mistreatment…Mohammed Ali Abdullah Bwazir of Yemen was not told where he was going and according to his lawyer, John Chandler, was “frightened” to leave the prison headed to an unknown country, where he had no ties or connections…“Can you imagine being there for 14 years and going to a plane where you could finally leave, and saying, ‘No, take me back to my cell?’”

“Time. We can’t get it back. When it’s gone, it’s gone. The families embracing their returning fathers, sons and husbands after 10 months of separation in Connecticut know it. Shaker Aamer and his children…meeting almost as strangers after 13 years apart know it too….and so do those 91 men who remain at Guantánamo, while their families wait for them.”

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A Different Perspective on
our Overblown Prison System

I’ve written before about conditions in our nation’s prison system – particularly in relation to our deeply disturbing over-use of solitary confinement.

I wasn’t expecting to find a new angle on this problem in the magazine of the Sierra Club – a publication I might not be reading at all except that I get it as a contributor to the organization. But, as an article in a recent issue notes, in addition to locking up a higher percentage of its citizens than any other nation, “our prisons are a continual source of environmental degradation.”

As prison populations increase – with many institutions criminally overcrowded (small pun here) problems resulting from the waste they generate have in some cases become overwhelming. In her Sierra article, Dashka Slater describes a 2005 hearing in Alabama, where citizens came to protest prison sewage releases that were degrading the rivers where they swam, boated and fished:

The source was the William E. Donaldson Correctional Facility, which held some 1,500 inmates even though it had been built to house fewer than half that many. “Rest assured that if any one of us was dumping raw sewage into the river, we would be heavily fined and locked up in the very prison we’re discussing,” observed Buddy Vines, described in the next day’s Birmingham News as “a lifelong resident of property along the river.”

Groups cited in the article who are responding to this issue include the Prison Ecology Project, whose director, Panagioti Tsolkas, says “In some ways a prison is a factory farm for humans and, sadly, it has the equivalent output.”

“In prison you don’t have any choice…”

In addition to looking at the polluting impact of prisons on their surroundings, the article cites a number of correctional institutions where inmates themselves are at risk from chemicals in nearby waste dumps, landfills and other sources. Dashka notes that “inmates in many of these facilities report health problems consistent with toxic exposure, but their options are limited.” She quotes Paul Wright, founder of the Prison Ecology Project’s parent organization, the Human Rights Defense Center, who says “They can’t say ‘Hey, I don’t like it here, so I’m going to move.’ In prison you don’t have any choice.”

Note: the Human Rights Defense Center publishes its own newsletter, Prison Legal News. Illustrations in this post are from the original Sierra article.

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