Epidemiology
Chagas disease (American trypanosomiasis) is caused by the protozoan parasite Trypanosoma cruzi, and transmitted to humans by infected triatomine bugs, and less commonly by transfusion, organ transplant, from mother to infant, and in rare instances, by ingestion of contaminated food or... drink.1-4 The hematophagous triatomine vectors defecate during or immediately after feeding on a person. The parasite is present in large numbers in the feces of infected bugs, and enters the human body through the bite wound, or through the intact conjunctiva or other mucous membrane.
Vector-borne transmission occurs only in the Americas, where an estimated 8 to 10 million people have Chagas disease.5 Historically, transmission occurred largely in rural areas in Latin America, where houses built of mud brick are vulnerable to colonization by the triatomine vectors.4 In such areas, Chagas disease usually is acquired in childhood. In the last several decades, successful vector control programs have substantially decreased transmission rates in much of Latin America, and large-scale migration has brought infected individuals to cities both within and outside of Latin America.
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This motion graphic shows how the kissing bug transmits the Trypanosoma cruzi parasite to humans and causes Chagas disease.
Chagas disease is a tropical disease caused by a parasite called Trypansoma cruzi and is primarily spread by Triatomine bugs. It is estimated to affect 6-7 million people, mostly in Latin America, and can cause devastating chronic illness. In this video we take a look at the disease, what it is, and... ways to control its spread.
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Chagas disease (American trypanosomiasis) is caused by the protozoan parasite Trypanosoma cruzi, and transmitted to humans by infected triatomine bugs, and less commonly by transfusion, organ transplant, from mother to infant, and in rare instances, by ingestion of contaminated food or drink.1-4 The... hematophagous triatomine vectors defecate during or immediately after feeding on a person. The parasite is present in large numbers in the feces of infected bugs, and enters the human body through the bite wound, or through the intact conjunctiva or other mucous membrane.
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Chagas disease is a zoonosis caused by the protozoa Trypanosoma cruzi. It is transmitted to humans by contact of triatomine bug faeces with a break in the skin (often caused by a bite from the triatomine bug), or with mucous membranes. Transmission by contaminated blood transfusion, accidental expos...ure to blood, mother-to-child (during pregnancy or childbirth) or consumption of contaminated food and water is also possible.
Chagas disease has two phases: an acute phase, which lasts approximately 4 to 6 weeks, and a chronic phase, which is lifelong if left untreated.
The disease is primarily found on the American continent. It is significantly underdiagnosed.
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PLoS Negl Trop Dis 15(8): e0009697. Chagas disease (CD), caused by the parasite Trypanosoma cruzi, affects ~6–7 million people worldwide. Significant limitations still exist in our understanding of CD. Harnessing individual participant data (IPD) from studies could support more in-depth analyses t...o address the many outstanding research questions. This systematic review aims to describe the characteristics and treatment practices of clinical studies in CD and assess the breadth and availability of research data for the potential establishment of a data-sharing platform.
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Research and Reports in Tropical Medicine 2022:13 25–40.
Chagas disease (CD) is caused by the parasite Trypanosoma cruzi, and it is endemic in Central, South America, Mexico and the South of the United States. It is an important cause of early mortality and morbidity, and it is associated with po...verty and stigma. A third of the cases evolve into chronic cardiomyopathy and gastrointestinal disease. This review proposes strategies to address challenges faced by non-endemic countries
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DOI: 10.5772/intechopen.102891Little progress has been made since the 1960s and 19. 70s to widen the therapeutic arsenal against Trypanosoma cruzi, the causative pathogen of Chagas disease, which remains a frustrating and perplexing infectious disease. This chapter focuses on the strategic and opera...tional challenges in the clinical drug development of a novel antitrypanosomal agent for Chagas disease. The various elements that contribute to a robust assessment of treatment effect including dose selection, choice of patient population, trial methodology, endpoint measures, and regulatory perspectives are discussed. The learnings herein should serve as resource to help researchers and other stakeholders optimize their clinical development plans and speed delivery of new medicines to patients with Chagas disease.
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This review focusses on the interactions between the etiologic agent of Chagas disease, Trypanosoma cruzi, and its triatomine vector. The flagellate mainly colonizes the intestinal tract of the insect. The effect of triatomines on trypanosomes is indicated by susceptibility and refractoriness phenom...ena that vary according to the combination of the strains. Other effects are apparent in the different regions of the gut. In the stomach, the majority of ingested blood trypomastigotes are killed while the remaining transform to round stages. In the small intestine, these develop into epimastigotes, the main replicative stage. In the rectum, the population density is the highest and is where the infectious stage develops, the metacyclic trypomastigote. In all regions of the gut, starvation and feeding of the triatomine affect T. cruzi. In the small intestine and rectum, starvation reduces the population density and more spheromastigotes develop. In the rectum, feeding after short-term starvation induces metacyclogenesis and after long-term starvation the development of specific cells, containing several nuclei, kinetoplasts and flagella. When considering the effects of T. cruzi on triatomines, the flagellate seems to be of low pathogenicity. However, during stressful periods, which are normal in natural populations, effects occur often on the behaviour, eg, in readiness to approach the host, the period of time before defecation, dispersal and aggregation. In nymphs, the duration of the different instars and the mortality rates increase, but this seems to be induced by repeated infections or blood quality by the feeding on infected hosts. Starvation resistance is often reduced by infection. Longevity and reproduction of adults is reduced, but only after infection with some strains of T. cruzi. Only components of the surface coat of blood trypomastigotes induce an immune reaction. However, this seems to act against gut bacteria and favours the development of T. cruzi.
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Datos y cifras
Se calcula que en el mundo hay entre 6 y 7 millones de personas infectadas por el Trypanosoma cruzi, el parásito causante de la enfermedad de Chagas, la mayoría de ellas en América Latina.
La infección por Trypanosoma cruzi se puede curar si el tratamiento se administra al poco ...tiempo de producirse la infección.
Hasta un 30% de los enfermos crónicos presentan alteraciones cardíacas y hasta un 10% padecen alteraciones digestivas, neurológicas o combinadas que pueden requerir un tratamiento específico.
El control de vectores y otras estrategias destinadas a reducir la transmisión que estos producen son los métodos más útiles para prevenir la enfermedad de Chagas en América Latina.
Los análisis de sangre son fundamentales para prevenir la infección por transfusiones o trasplantes de órganos en todo el mundo.
La detección y el tratamiento de niñas infectadas y mujeres infectadas en edad fértil es clave, además del cribado de los recién nacidos y otros hijos de madres infectadas que no hayan recibido antes tratamiento antiparasitario.
La enfermedad de Chagas, también llamada tripanosomiasis americana, es una enfermedad potencialmente mortal causada por el parásito protozoo Trypanosoma cruzi (T. cruzi).
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Website last accessed on 10.04.2023
The Chagas disease is frequently referred to as the effects that the parasite Trypanosoma cruzi (T. cruzi) has on people’s health. However, from our perspective, Chagas is much more than that: it is a complex socioenvironmental health problem in which elemen...ts of different nature converge and interact. The biomedical and epidemiological aspects, which are most frequently addressed, are only a piece of the puzzle that needs to be complete in order to understand Chagas in all its complexity. Social, environmental, economic, political, cultural, and educational elements turn out to be essential in comprehending the magnitude of the problem without prejudice or stigmatizations.
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Chagas disease or American trypanosomiasis is, together with geohelminths, the neglected disease that causes more loss of years of healthy life due to disability in Latin America. Chagas disease, as determined by the factors and determinants, shows that different contexts require different actions, ...preventing new cases or reducing the burden of disease. Control strategies must combine two general courses of action including prevention of transmission to prevent the occurrence of new cases (these measures are cost effective), as well as opportune diagnosis and treatment of infected individuals in order to prevent the clinical evolution of the disease and to allow them to recuperate their health. All actions should be implemented as fully as possible and with an integrated way, to maximise the impact. Chagas disease cannot be eradicated due because of the demonstrated existence of infected wild triatomines
in permanent contact with domestic cycles and it contributes to the occurrence of at least few new cases. However, it is possible to interrupt the transmission of Trypanosoma cruzi in a large territory and to eliminate Chagas disease
as a public health problem with a dramatic reduction of burden of the disease.
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Chagas disease (CD), caused by the parasite Trypanosoma cruzi, affects ~6–7 million people worldwide. Significant limitations still exist in our understanding of CD. Harnessing individual participant data (IPD) from studies could support more in-depth analyses to address
the many outstanding rese...arch questions. This systematic review aims to describe the characteristics and treatment practices of clinical studies in CD and assess the breadth and
availability of research data for the potential establishment of a data-sharing platform.
more
Chagas heart disease (CHD) affects approximately 30% of patients chronically infected with the protozoa Trypanosoma cruzi. CHD is classified into four stages of increasing severity according to electrocardiographic, echocardiographic, and clinical criteria. CHD presents with a myriad of clinical man...ifestations, but its main complications are sudden cardiac death, heart failure, and stroke. Importantly, CHD has a higher incidence of sudden cardiac death and stroke than most other cardiopathies, and patients with CHD complicated by heart failure have a higher mortality than patients with heart failure caused by other etiologies. Among patients with CHD, approximately 90% of deaths can be attributed to complications of Chagas disease. Sudden cardiac death is the most common cause of death (55%-60%), followed by heart failure (25%-30%) and stroke (10%-15%). The high morbimortality and the unique characteristics of CHD demand an individualized approach according to the stage of the disease and associated complications the patient presents with. Therefore, the management of CHD is challenging, and in this review, we present the most updated available data to help clinicians and cardiologists in the care of these patients. We describe the clinical manifestations, diagnosis and classification criteria, risk stratification, and approach to the different clinical aspects of CHD using diagnostic tools and pharmacological and non-pharmacological treatments.
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Chagas disease is a neglected tropical disease caused by the protozoan parasite Trypanosoma cruzi. It is a significant public health problem, affecting millions of people worldwide. And although it was described 110 years ago, only two old nitroheterocyclic drugs, benznidazole and nifurtimox, are cu...rrently available for the treatment of Chagas disease and both have several limitations. Besides the clear unmet medical need, many challenges preclude the development of new treatments, some of them related to a lack of understanding of the pathophysiology of the disease and parasite-host interactions. New knowledge and tools are becoming available, but the number of new chemical entities progressing through the preclinical pipeline is inadequate. Therefore, it is still uncertain whether safe, effective and accessible new drugs will be available in the near future. The Chagas disease research community must commit to even greater collaboration to ensure that patients eventually benefit from better treatments.
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Due to the particular Amazonian situation of vectorial transmission based mostly on the wild cycle of Trypanosoma cruzi with diversity of triatomine vectors involved in effective transmission, and the variety of eco-epidemiological situations that facilitate such transmission, the countries of the A...mazon agreed that the development and strengthening of preventive actions based on comprehensive surveillance and detection of effective vectorial transmission, based on mandatory notification of acute or chronic cases, was required. In addition, it was recommended that surveillance and prevention and/or vector control actioDue to the particular Amazonian situation of vectorial transmission based mostly on the wild cycle of Trypanosoma cruzi with diversity of triatomine vectors involved in effective transmission, and the variety of eco-epidemiological situations that facilitate such transmission, the countries of the Amazon agreed that the development and strengthening of preventive actions based on comprehensive surveillance and detection of effective vectorial transmission, based on mandatory notification of acute or chronic cases, was required.
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La enfermedad de Chagas (ECha), resultado de la infección por el Trypanosoma cruzi, afecta varias poblaciones de las
zonas rurales de Suramérica y América Central. En los últimos años la enfermedad ha cobrado importancia epidemiológica no sólo porque se ha incrementado la detección de caso...s, sino por la presencia, en la infección crónica, de cardiopatía, patología de considerable gravedad clínica y cuya aparición aumenta el riesgo de incapacidad y reducción de la expectativa de vida.
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Chagas disease, which is caused by infection with the parasite Trypanosoma cruzi, is known as the silent disease. An estimated 8 million people have the disease and most of them do not know that they are infected.
Pathogens . 2021 Nov 16;10(11):1493.doi: 10.3390/pathogens10111493
.Chronic manifestations of Chagas disease present as disabling and life-threatening condi-tions affecting mainly the cardiovascular and gastrointestinal systems. Although meaningful research has outlined the different molecular mech...anisms underlying Trypanosoma cruzi’s infection and the host-parasite interactions that follow, prompt diagnosis and treatment remain a challenge, particu-larly in developing countries and also in those where the disease is considered non-endemic. This review intends to present an up-to-date review of the parasite’s life cycle, genetic diversity, virulence factors, and infective mechanisms, as well as the epidemiology, clinical presentation, diagnosis, and treatment options of the main chronic complications of Chagas disease.
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Front. Public Health, 02 July 2019 Sec. Infectious Diseases: Epidemiology and Prevention
Volume 7 - 2019 | https://doi.org/10.3389/fpubh.2019.00166
Chagas disease (CD) is an anthropozoonosis caused by the protozoan parasite Trypanosoma cruzi, that affects about 6–8 million people worldwide (1) a...nd causes approximately 50,000 deaths per year. Another 65–100 million people are living in areas at risk for infection worldwide (2–4). Even though over a century has passed since its discovery, CD remains one of the leading public health problems for most Latin American countries
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