Chagas disease is caused by Trypanosoma cruzi, a parasite related to the African trypanosome that causes sleeping sickness. It is spread by reduvid bugs and is one of the major health problems in South America, where 20 million people are infected. Due to immigration, about 500,000 people in the United States are believed to be infected.
Risk factors for Chagas disease include living in Central or South America, poverty, living in a hut where the reduvid bugs live in the walls, and receiving a blood transfusion from a person who carries the parasite but does not have active Chagas disease.
Possible Complications: Cardiomyopathy, Heart failure, Enlargement of the esophagus (megaesophagus) with swallowing difficulty, Enlargement of the colon (megacolon) with constipation and abdominal pain
Chagas disease is caused by a parasite. It is common in Latin America but not in the United States. Infected blood-sucking bugs, sometimes called kissing bugs, spread it. When an infected bug bites you, usually on your face, it leaves behind infected waste. You can get the infection if you rub it in your eyes or nose, the bite wound or a cut. The disease can also spread through contaminated food, a blood transfusion, a donated organ or from mother to baby during pregnancy.
Chagas disease is usually spread by the feces of reduviid bugs, insects that live in cracks and holes of poorly constructed houses and outbuildings in South and Central America. The bugs become infected after biting an infected animal or person. Once infected, the bugs pass Trypanosoma parasites in their feces. People get infected when they unknowingly rub bug feces into their eyes or mouth or into a skin wound or bite. People can also become infected by eating uncooked food contaminated with infected bug feces.
Chagas disease occurs exclusively in the Americas, particularly in poor, rural areas of Mexico, Central America, and South America; very rarely, the disease has originated in the Southern United States. The insects that spread the disease are known by various local names, including vinchuca in Argentina, barbeiro (the barber) in Brazil, Pito in Colombia, chipo, chupança, chinchorro, and "the kissing bug"
When infected reduvid bugs bite humans, they defecate — passing the T. cruzi parasites in their feces. The parasites can then enter your body through your eyes, mouth, a cut or scratch, or the wound from the reduvid bug's bite. The parasites can be helped into these openings if you scratch or rub at the bite site.
Chagas disease has two phases -- acute and chronic. The acute phase may have no symptoms or have very mild symptoms. Symptoms of the acute phase include swelling and reddening at the site of infection (where the blood-sucking insect caused the initial infection).
Chagas disease is endemic throughout much of Mexico, Central America, and South America where an estimated 8 to 11 million people are infected. The triatomine bug thrives under poor housing conditions (for example, mud walls, thatched roofs), so in endemic countries, people living in rural areas are at greatest risk for acquiring infection.
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