2 - Chagas disease in pre-Colombian civilizations

Abstract

Human Chagas disease is a purely coincidental occurrence. As humans came into contact with the natural foci of infection, they might have become infected as a single addition to the already extensive host range of Trypanosoma cruzi, which includes other primates and a diversity of sylvatic mammals. Thus began a process of adaptation and domiciliation to human habitations, through which the vectors had direct access to abundant food as well as protection from climatic changes and predators. In addition to insect transmission, Chagas disease could be acquired by ingestion of contaminated food. Historical evidence suggests that many pre-Hispanic cultures were in close contact with triatomine insect vectors in their dwellings before the arrival of European conquerors to the New World, and several reports also provide evidence of the antiquity of human T. cruzi infection in South America, Central America, and Mexico.