Trypanosomiasis (chagas disease)

Most of historical reconstructions indicate that although human Chagas disease may have been well established amongst pre-Columbian Andean cultures, it would have been of sporadic occurrence in the rest of the continent until the later 19th and early 20th centuries.

American trypanosomiasis was named Chagas disease in honor of its discoverer, Brazilian physician, Carlos Ribeiro Justiniano Chagas who was born on a coffee farm at Oliveira, state of Minas Gerais, on July 9, 1878.

In 1909, Carlos Chagas identified Trypanosoma cruzi as the agent of Chagas disease. Trypanosoma cruzi is a protozoan parasite that is enzootic and endemic in much of the Americas, where it infects a wide variety of wild and domestic mammals as well as many species of triatomine vectors, in addition to humans.

In 1910, Chagas discovered that Triatoma bugs are vectors of the parasite and that various animals are wild reservoirs for the parasite.

According to the classical WHO data, it was estimated that Chagas disease affected 16-18 million people with at least 100 million at risk of contracting the infection in 21 countries throughout Latin America.
Trypanosomiasis (chagas disease)