Morning Briefing

"Chagas disease -- a parasitic infection transmitted through an insect commonly known as the 'kissing bug' -- is one of the most common infections among pregnant women in the Western Hemisphere," Peter Hotez, president of the Sabin Vaccine Institute and director of the Sabin Vaccine Institute and Texas Children's Hospital Center for Vaccine Development, writes in the Huffington Post's "Global Motherhood" blog. "It can be found all over Latin America, from Mexico and Central America to Paraguay and Argentina," he writes, adding, "For expectant mothers, what makes Chagas disease especially harmful is that it can be passed to their unborn children, causing highly lethal congenital infections."