Chagas' Disease as a Foodborne Illness

Abstract

Various researchers have studied the importance of the oral transmission of Chagas' disease since the mid-20th century. Only in recent years, due to an outbreak that occurred in the Brazilian State of Santa Catarina in 2005 and to various outbreaks occurring during the last 3 years in the Brazilian Amazon basin, mainly associated with the consumption of Amazonian palm berry or açaí (Euterpe oleracea Mart.) juice, has this transmission route aroused the attention of researchers. Nevertheless, reports published in the 1960s already indicated the possibility of Chagas' disease transmission via food in Brazil, mainly in the Amazonian region. Recently, in December 2007, an outbreak of Chagas' disease occurred in Caracas, Venezuela, related to ingestion of contaminated fruit juices. The objective of this article is to point out the importance of foodborne transmission in the etiology of Chagas' disease, on the basis of published research and Brazilian epidemiology data.

Transmisión oral de Trypanosoma cruzi: un nuevo escenario epidemiológico de la enfermedad de Chagas en Colombia y otros países suramericanos

“…Otra fuente de infección es el consumo de carne de animales mal cocida, o de sangre de algunos reservorios del parásito como el armadillo (Dasypus spp. ), la cual es consumida por algunas comunidades del continente debido a las supuestas propiedades medicinales que posee (22)(23)(24)(25)(26).…”

The effect of thermal, chlorine and ozone treatments on survival of Escherichia coli and Salmonella spp. in açai berries

“…There are also many reports of Escherichia coli and Salmonella spp. in açai berries, pulp and beverages [3].The regulations establish some procedures for processors, mainly blanching treatment of açai berries at 80 °C for 10 s [5], to deactivate Trypanosoma cruzi, the causative agent of Chagas disease [6]. Blanching for less than 10 s does not change the sensorial attributes of the beverage [7] and can be considered an efficient, easy and cheap process.…”

HPLC-DAD phenolic profile, cytotoxic and anti-kinetoplastidae activity ofMelissa officinalis

“…In traditional medicine, it is used in the treatment of headache, migraine, toothache, earache, flatulence, indigestion, cramping, nausea, anxiety anaemia, vertigo, syncope, asthma, bronchitis, amenorrhea, heart failure, arrhythmias, insomnia, epilepsy, depression, psychosis, hysteria, stomach disorders, ulcers, wounds, rheumatisms and torticollis (Carnat et al 1998;Herodez et al 2003;Salah & Jäger 2005;Dastmalchi et al 2007). Pharmacological reports indicate that M. officinalis exhibit a variety of actions including antioxidant (Kamdem et al 2013) and anticholinesterase activities (Pereira et al 2009). …”