Chagas' disease in the Amazon: speculations on transmission per os

• Autor(a) principal: Lainson, Ralph
• Data de Publicação: 1980
• Outros Autores: Shaw, Jeffrey Jon, Naiff, R. D
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Repositório Digital do Instituto Evandro Chagas (Patuá)
• Texto Completo: https://patua.iec.gov.br/handle/iec/805
• topic: Doença de Chagas; Brasil (BR)

Although 8 arnochthonous cases of Chagas'disease have been recorded in Belém, Pará, human infection with Trypanosoma cruzi remains rare in the Amazon Basin due to the absence of domiciliated bugs. Sporadic cases follow the occasional invasion of houses by silvatic vectors from nearby forest, where there is a high infection rate in wild animais. It is suggested that transmission to man may be per os, at least on some occasions: this would expíain the simultaneous development of acute Chagas' disease by four members of a family, in a house which appeared to be devoid of bugs. Epimastigotes of T. cruzi survived for at least 3 hours, at 26-28"C, in milk and caldo cooked foodstuffs including rice, beans, fish and minced beef. AlI oi 30 mice fed wit.h these contaminated foods became infected. The present. low incidence of Chagas' disease in the Amazon Region appears to be a stable situation. but àevastation of the forest might result in a higher incidence if silvatic vectors adapted to human dwelling-places. The main threat, however, lies in the introduction of already infected, domiciliated triatomines from endemic areas elsewhere in Brazil. with the establishment of new foci of "domestic" zymo. demes of T cruzi and transmission from man to man.