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Chagas disease, also known as American trypanosomiasis, is a tropical parasitic disease caused by Trypanosoma cruzi. It is spread mostly by insects in the subfamily Triatominae , known as "kissing bugs".
Triatoma infestans, commonly called winchuka [1] or vinchuca [2] in Argentina, Bolivia, Uruguay and Chile, barbeiro in Brazil, chipo in Venezuela and also known as "kissing bug" or "barber bug" in English, is a blood-sucking bug (like virtually all the members of its subfamily Triatominae) and the most important vector of Trypanosoma cruzi which can lead to Chagas disease.
Another cardiomyopathy found in nearly all cases of chronic Chagas’ disease is thromboembolic syndrome. Thromboembolism describes thrombosis, the formation of a clot, and its main complication is embolism, the carrying of a clot to a distal section of a vessel and causing blockage there.
In areas where Chagas disease occurs (from the southern United States to northern Argentina), all triatomine species are potential vectors of the Chagas disease parasite Trypanosoma cruzi, but only those species that are well adapted to living with humans (such as Triatoma infestans and Rhodnius prolixus) are considered important vectors.
Doctors, researchers, and patient advocates say the U.S. could be doing far more to combat Chagas, which causes serious heart disease in an estimated 30% of infected people and can also lead to ...
T. cruzi is the protozoan that causes Chagas Disease, which affects approximately eight million people a year in the western hemisphere alone. Triatoma indictiva is found in Mexico and throughout the southern United States, including Arizona and Texas. [2]
Chagas disease, caused by a parasite, affects people primarily in rural Latin America. But an estimated 300,000 people in the U.S. have it and many are unaware.
Even so, at one location in Louisiana, 40% of Triatoma sanguisuga were found to contain the pathogen Trypanosoma cruzi, and 38% of these had fed on humans. In neighboring Texas, though, human blood has rarely been detected in any species of Triatoma. [5] In the United States, documented vectorborne cases of Chagas disease are rare.