We analyzed 107 isolates of T. cruzi from multiple species of free-ranging and captive wildlife, domestic animals, triatomine bug vectors, and humans who were autochthonously infected in the United States.
Transmission is primarily mediated by triatomine bug vectors but the congenital route, consumption of contaminated food and drink, organ transplantation and blood transfusion are all important additional infection risks (Marin-Neto et al., 2008).
Chagas disease, caused by the protozoan Trypanosoma cruzi, is transmitted to humans mainly by triatomine bugs (vector-borne route), through blood transfusions, or from mother to child through the placenta (transplacental route) (1 ).
Pharmaceuticals (including vaccines) are critical, but they are not the only solutions, and their final application is in complex dynamic worlds in which bug (and vector) evolution exploits the social nature of humans, and our responses have counter responses.
Richard Pollack, a public health entomologist and instructor at Harvard University, said the work is "compelling," but remains hesitant to call bed bugs a vector of the disease.
The registry recorded the name of family chief of infested houses, dates of reception of reports, village names, vector bug species, dates of response, and the name of responder for each report.
To promote and respond efficiently to vector bug reports from inhabitants, the managerial focal point of the surveillance system was placed at the local health centres with a full-time or part-time Environmental Health technician (Table 1).
Most persons acquire this infection through contact with vector bugs carrying T. cruzi in endemic areas of Latin America.
Inhabitants of the six pilot sites sent vector bugs caught in houses to the local health centre (Table 3).
To the Editor: Triatoma infestans bugs, the main vector of Chagas disease, historically occupied a large area from northeastern Brazil to Chubut Province in Patagonia, Argentina (1 ).
