Epidemiology of Chagas disease in Jaguaruana, Ceará, Brazil. I. Presence of triatomines and index of Trypanosoma cruzi infection in four localities of a rural area

• Autor(a) principal: Sarquis,Otília
• Data de Publicação: 2004
• Outros Autores: Borges-Pereira,José, Mac Cord,José Roberto, Gomes,Taís Ferreira, Cabello,Pedro Hernán, Lima,Marli Maria
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Memórias do Instituto Oswaldo Cruz
• Texto Completo: http://www.scielo.br/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0074-02762004000300004
• topic: epidemiology; infestation index; natural infection; Triatoma brasiliensis; Triatoma pseudomaculata; Rhodnius nasutus; Panstrongylus lutzi; Ceará; Brazil

In order to assay the triatomine infestation and domiciliation in the rural area of Jaguaruana district, state of Ceará, Brazil, we studied, from November 2000 to April 2002, 4 localities comprising 158 domiciles as a whole, with an average of 4 inhabitants/house, who are dwelling in there for more than 7 years. Most houses have tile-covered roofs and the walls built with plaster-covered bricks (57%), followed by bricks without plaster (33%), and mud walls (7.5%). A total of 3082 triatomines were captured from different locations, according to the following capture plan: (a) intradomiciles: 238 Triatoma brasiliensis, 6 T. pseudomaculata, 9 Rhodnius nasutus, and 2 Panstrongylus lutzi; (b) peridomiciles (annexes): 2069 T. brasiliensis, 223 T. pseudomaculata, 121 R. nasutus, and 1 P. lutzi; (c) wild, in carnauba palms (Copernicia prunifera): 413 R. nasutus. From the captured triatomines, 1773 (57.5%) were examined. The natural index of Trypanosoma cruzi infection ranged from 10.8% to 30.2% (average of 17%), depending on the species and the location from where the triatomines were captured.