Abstract
Carlos Chagas discovered American trypanosomiasis, also named Chagas disease (CD) in his honor, just over a century ago. He described the clinical aspects of the disease, characterized by its etiological agent (Trypanosoma cruzi) and identified its insect vector. Initially, CD occurred only in Latin America and was considered a silent and poorly visible disease. More recently, CD became a neglected worldwide disease with a high morbimortality rate and substantial social impact, emerging as a significant public health threat. In this context, it is crucial to better understand better the epidemiological scenarios of CD and its transmission dynamics, involving people infected and at risk of infection, diversity of the parasite, vector species, and T. cruzi reservoirs. Although efforts have been made by endemic and non-endemic countries to control, treat, and interrupt disease transmission, the cure or complete eradication of CD are still topics of great concern and require global attention. Considering the current scenario of CD, also affecting non-endemic places such as Canada, USA, Europe, Australia, and Japan, in this review we aim to describe the spread of CD cases worldwide since its discovery until it has become a global public health concern.
Highlights
Chagas disease (CD) is an anthropozoonosis caused by the protozoan parasite Trypanosoma cruzi, that affects about 6–8 million people worldwide [1] and causes approximately 50,000 deaths per year
Considering that the current scenario of CD is changing to affecting non-endemic countries, in this review we aimed to describe the spread of CD cases worldwide from its discovery to its current status as a global public health concern
Pereira et al [145] reported that 86.6% of patients evaluated had at least one comorbidity associated with T. cruzi infection, being the major ones systemic arterial hypertension (SAH) (67%) and dyslipidemia (31.9%)
Summary
Chagas disease (CD) is an anthropozoonosis caused by the protozoan parasite Trypanosoma cruzi, that affects about 6–8 million people worldwide [1] and causes approximately 50,000 deaths per year. Another 65–100 million people are living in areas at risk for infection worldwide [2,3,4]. The acute phase is characterized by a high parasitemia, usually asymptomatic or oligosymptomatic with fever, anorexia, and tachycardia [6] These manifestations disappear spontaneously in 90% of the cases, and possibly 60–70% of infected individuals will never develop signs or symptoms related to CD, characterizing the indeterminate form. Despite efforts to understand the parasitic tropism for certain tissues, such as the heart, the factors involved in the clinical progression from indeterminate to symptomatic forms are still unknown
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