Human Settlements, Demographic Pattern, and Epidemiology in Lowland Amazonia: The Case of Chagas's Disease

Abstract

Chagas's disease constitutes a major public health hazard in many South American countries. Among native South American populations a clear‐cut difference in the epidemiology of the disease is observed between highland and lowland populations—endemic in the former and enzootic in the latter. This article reviews the main features of the epidemiology of Chagas's disease and discusses the differences observed between the two populations as a result of different adaptive strategies and behavioral components. Emphasis is given to the role of housing type, mobility, and animal domestication in the process of domiciliation of the insect vector, and thus in the endemization of the disease.