Integrate Study of a Bolivian Population Infected by Trypanosoma cruzi, the Agent of Chagas Disease

Abstract

A cross section of a human population (501 individuals)

Autonomic Dysfunction and Risk Factors Associated with Trypanosoma cruzi Infection among Children in Arequipa, Peru

“…This finding may reflect lower intensity of parasite exposure, lower parasite burdens, and/or strain differences in Arequipa compared with other study sites. The lower infection prevalence in Arequipa suggests a lower force of infection compared with study sites in Brazil, Argentina, or Bolivia, [33][34][35][36] whereas the relatively flat age prevalence curve supports the hypothesis that the parasite was only introduced into the periurban communities of Arequipa in the early 1990s. 26 Investigators have shown that repeated infection increases cardiac pathology in animal models 37,38 and have suggested that vector control, by decreasing reinfection rates, may be responsible for the milder disease now seen in formerly endemic communities.…”

Molecular epidemiology of domestic and sylvatic Trypanosoma cruzi infection in rural northwestern Argentina

“…Although cats were frequently reported to stray and hunt in the forest , their current contribution to such introduction appears to be negligible because the few cats that were infected had TC IIe. Moreover, no infection was found among 162 rodents examined for T. cruzi during 2002-2007 this study) despite rodent infections being common in Bolivia, Chile and Brazil (Cortez et al, 2006, Herrera et al, 2007Rozas et al, 2007). Dogs could become infected with TC I or TC IIc while visiting the forest or hunting, since dogs were reported to kill opossums in this area (Schweigmann et al, 1999).…”

“…Previous studies showed that lineage TC IId (or its zymodeme equivalent) predominated among human isolates from Santiago del Estero and Chaco provinces and in a large set of human isolates from Argentina and Bolivia (Brenière et al, 2002;Burgos et al, 2007;Diosque et al, 2003;Montamat et al, 1992). TC IId was also frequently identified in human isolates from Paraguay (Chapman et al, 1984), and was the prevalent lineage detected in peripheral blood samples from congenital Chagas disease patients in Argentina (Burgos et al, 2007).…”

Seroprevalence of Trypanosoma cruzi infection in French Guiana

“…Firstly, our survey could have overestimated the actual seroprevalence of T. cruzi infection. However, the method that we used, ELISA, offers a high reliability and is concordant with other serological methods such as direct agglutination test or indirect immunofluorescence antibody test (Añez et al 1999) and PCR (Brenière et al 2002). Furthermore, T. cruzi trypomastigote extract, with almost no cross-reactivity with other protozoan infections (Aznar et al 1997), has been shown to be an excellent reagent for detecting the infection in areas of low prevalence, and appears to be better than epimastigote extracts.…”