An incurable and sometimes deadly disease that may be spreading in Arizona has state health officials so concerned that it is now mandatory for doctors to notify the state when a patient tests positive.

Chagas disease is a blood disease found primarily in Latin America, but there is growing concern that the disease and the parasite that causes it may be heading north.

In a move that got little attention outside the health care industry, the Arizona Department of Health Services on Feb. 14 issued an order to start screening for cases of Chagas in Arizona.

"We do have people who have the disease in the population here," Gene Robertson said.

Robertson is the director of operations at the lab that tests all the blood collected by Valley-based United Blood Services.

UBS was among the first in the nation to start screening for Chagas.

"We have many more immigrants from South and Central America now coming and living in the country, not knowing they're infected, and either they or their children donating blood and being able to transmit that parasite to blood recipients," Robertson said.

Between UBS and the Red Cross, 60 percent of the nation's blood supply is now tested for Chagas.

But blood donation is only one of two ways Chagas is transmitted, and the second way may be more difficult to control.

The disease is found in the environment, in a parasite living in the intestine of an insect called the "kissing bug."

Pablo Guerenstein is one of a team of researchers studying the kissing bug at the University of Arizona. He and his colleagues hope to discover whether the types of kissing bug found in Arizona carry the same parasite carried by their Latin American cousins -- the one that causes Chagas.

In Latin America, the bugs are found in adobe homes, living in the mud walls and infecting pets and livestock as well as people. As many as 18 million people in Latin America are infected.

In Arizona, the environment and the homes do not lend themselves to kissing bug infestations. So far, there are no confirmed cases of Chagas traced to a kissing bug here.

"They are not very common, but we found some of them around here," researcher Carolina Reisenman said.

The researchers hope to develop a trap for the bugs that will lure them away from homes and potential victims.

Workers at the UBS lab have identified and destroyed 100 units of infected donated blood since February.

"That could have potentially gone to 300 different people," Robertson said.

Experts say a combination of the work in blood and research labs could ward off an epidemic.

The state is now collecting data on how often Chagas is diagnosed in Arizona. The disease is still considered extremely rare here.

The problem is that after the first month of infection, a person may not feel any symptoms for up to 20 years. By then, the parasite has already done serious damage to an infected person's heart.

Click here for more information about Chagas disease.