Chagas Disease in Ecuador: Evidence for Disease Transmission in an Indigenous Population in the Amazon Region

Epidemiology of Chagas disease in Ecuador. A brief review

“…It is today accepted that the main endemic areas are located in the provinces of Guayas, Manabí and El Oro. But new foci reported from the Amazon region and currently under investigation , Amunárriz 1991, Chico et al 1997, AbadFranch 1998, Abad-Franch et al 1998a strongly suggest that the northern Ecuadorian Amazon basin is to be considered an endemic area as well. The lack of systematic studies in other provinces makes it complicated to assert that the disease is not endemic in areas (e.g., in the provinces of Los Ríos, Esmeraldas, Pastaza, Loja, Imbabura, Pichincha, Azuay, etc.)…”

“…Three triatomine species seem to be involved in the Amazon basin foci: R. pictipes, R. robustus and Panstrongylus geniculatus (Espinoza 1955, Amunárriz 1991, Chico et al 1997, Abad-Franch et al 1998a. These five species may therefore be considered as the ones that actually transmit T. cruzi to people in the well-characterised endemic areas.…”

“…These five species may therefore be considered as the ones that actually transmit T. cruzi to people in the well-characterised endemic areas. The apparent trend to establish domestic and/or peridomestic colonies observed in the last three species in some areas of the Amazon basin (Barrett 1988, Amunárriz, 1991, Chico et al 1997, Valente et al 1998) is particularly worrying. However, adults have shown their capacity to fly into the houses to feed during the night from their breeding sites (palm trees, bromeliaceae, mammals burrows), without establishing permanent colonies within human-related structures (Lent & Wygodzinsky 1979, Miles et al 1981, Barrett 1988, Schofield 1994.…”

Evaluación preliminar de la prueba comercial “Chagas (Trypanosoma cruzi) IgG-ELISA®” en individuos colombianos

“…Esta diversidad en la oferta de pruebas de ELISA, unida a las diferencias en los aislamientos circulantes en cada región, la prevalencia de la enfermedad en cada población y en los protocolos utilizados, resulta en una considerable fuente de variación en una misma prueba y entre pruebas (10)(11)(12)(13)(14)(15)(16)(17)(18)(19)(20).…”

“…Varios estudios han demostrado la capacidad de estos epítopos de inducir respuesta inmune humoral en el curso de la enfermedad en pacientes con enfermedad de Chagas procedentes de Argentina, Chile, Brasil, Bolivia y Ecuador (13)(14)(15)(16)(17)(18)(19)(20). Además, la evaluación de la ELISA basada en el antígeno TcF en pacientes de Brasil y Argentina mostró porcentajes de sensibilidad y especificidad de 100 y 98,94 %, respectivamente (12).…”