Emerging Chagas Disease: Trophic Network and Cycle of Transmission ofTrypanosoma cruzifrom Palm Trees in the Amazon

• DOI: 10.3201/eid0701.070100
• Publication Date: 2012-04-16T18:44:04Z
• Authors: Antonio R.L. Teix...; Pedro Sadi Monteiro; José M. Rebelo; Enrique R. Argañaraz; Daniela Vieira; Liana Lauria-Pires; Rubens Nascimento; Cássia A. Vexenat; Antonio R. Silva; Steven K. Ault; Jackson M. Costa
• Keywords: Adult; Chagas disease; Adolescent; Infectious and parasitic diseases; RC109-216; Amazon region; Communicable Diseases, Emerging; Trees; 03 medical and health sciences; 0302 clinical medicine; Risk Factors; Seroepidemiologic Studies; Animals; Humans; Chagas Disease; Child; Aged; R; Infant; Entomologia; opossum; Middle Aged; 15. Life on land; molecular entomology; 3. Good health; Chagas; Child, Preschool; Tripanossoma cruzi; Medicine; Doença de; ecology; Brazil

A trophic network involving molds, invertebrates, and vertebrates, ancestrally adapted to the palm tree (Attalaea phalerata) microhabitat, maintains enzootic Trypanosoma cruzi infections in the Amazonian county Paço do Lumiar, state of Maranhão, Brazil. We assessed seropositivity for T. cruzi infections in the human population of the county, searched in palm trees for the triatomines that harbor these infections, and gathered demographic, environmental, and socioeconomic data. Rhodnius pictipes and R. neglectus in palm-tree frond clefts or in houses were infected with T. cruzi (57% and 41%, respectively). Human blood was found in 6.8% of R. pictipes in houses, and 9 of 10 wild Didelphis marsupialis had virulent T. cruzi infections. Increasing human population density, rain forest deforestation, and human predation of local fauna are risk factors for human T. cruzi infections.