Chagas disease

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Chagas disease is an infection caused by the protozoan Trypanosoma cruzi, which is transmitted by the bite of a kissing bug (assassin or Triatominae bug).

The protozoa may enter the body through the bite wound or through tissues around an eye or rarely by eating contaminated food.
The area around the point of entry (a bite wound or an eye) may swell, and people may have a fever.
Then, after a long period of no symptoms, serious complications, mainly heart or digestive problems, may develop years later.
Doctors confirm the diagnosis by identifying the protozoa in a sample of blood or fluid taken from an infected organ or by doing blood tests.
A drug (benznidazole or nifurtimox) is used to kill the protozoa.

(See also Overview of Parasitic Infections.)
Chagas disease affects people in Mexico and Central and South America, mainly in rural areas where poverty is widespread. These areas provide a favorable environment for kissing bugs, which transmit Trypanosoma cruzi. The kissing bug thrives in cracks and crevices in mud walls, in thatched roofs of houses and farm buildings, and in rock or wood piles, chicken coops, and dog kennels.
In the Americas, about 8 million people are infected with Trypanosoma cruzi. This number includes more than 300,000 people who live in the United States after immigrating from regions of Latin America where they acquired the infection. Immigrants to Europe have also carried the disease with them. However, measures to control the infection are reducing the number of infections in Latin America.