It has been a century since the Brazilian physician Carlos R. J. Chagas first described the basic\u00a0morphology and life cycle of the American trypanosome, a parasite which causes Chagas disease.\u00a0Chagas disease is a zoonosis caused by Trypanosoma cruzi. Trypanosoma cruzi is found\u00a0mostly in blood-sucking triatomine insects and small mammals in areas ranging from the southern and southwestern United States to central Argentina and Chile. The acute phase of the\u00a0infection usually passes unnoticed because it is symptom free or exhibits only mild, nonspecific symptoms and signs. After a latent period, 10\u201330% of patients develop signs of chronic infection with cardiac and gastrointestinal complications. Up to the mid-20th century,\u00a0the epidemiology of the disease was closely linked to the extreme poverty of the peasant population and to their housing. In recent decades, however, the migration of people from the\u00a0countryside to towns has resulted in the urbanisation of this rural disease. The increasing\u00a0number of international travelers urges us to be alert to Chagas disease also in non-endemic\u00a0regions.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
It has been a century since the Brazilian physician Carlos R. J. Chagas first described the basic\u00a0morphology and life cycle of the American trypanosome, a parasite which causes Chagas disease.\u00a0Chagas disease is a zoonosis caused by Trypanosoma cruzi. Trypanosoma cruzi is found\u00a0mostly in blood-sucking triatomine insects and small mammals in areas ranging from the southern […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[393,425],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7595","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-1-2011-archive","category-infectious-diseases"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n