Chagas Disease: A Century Later

Chagas Disease: A Century Later

By Kara Rogers on Health

In 1909 Brazilian physician Carlos Chagas discovered American trypanosomiasis, better known as Chagas disease. In the 100 years since, there have been two drugs developed that can cure the disease and a lot learned about how it can be prevented. Yet, it affects between 8 and 11 million people in the Americas and Caribbean. So instead of celebrating a centennial marked by successful control or elimination of Chagas, researchers and public health officials are calling for assistance, especially increased government and private funding.

Chagas has fallen unceremoniously into the pile of neglected tropical diseases, a group of human afflictions that thrive in the poorest and most destitute rural and urban regions of the world. The urgency with which health organizations have had to respond to diseases like malaria and AIDS has overshadowed Chagas, which is endemic to Mexico and countries in Central and South America. There are roughly 50,000 new cases of Chagas diagnosed annually in these places, and at the rate that its incidence appears to be increasing, there is concern that in the Americas and Caribbean the disease actually may be as prevalent as or even more so than malaria.

Chagas is a vector-borne disease, and thus it involves a carrier (vector), a parasite, and a mechanism of transmission to humans. The carrier is a bloodsucking insect known as the kissing bug, or barber beetle, because its favorite place to bite an unsuspecting victim is the face. The kissing bug attacks at night and is most commonly found in poorly constructed or dilapidated houses that have cracks in their walls or roofs, which serve as entry points for the bugs. Trypanosomas cruzi.

The parasite that causes Chagas disease is Trypanosomas cruzi, a protozoan that has a flagellum to propel it from place to place. When a kissing bug bites its victim, it deposits the infectious parasite in its feces. The victim scratches the bite and rubs the feces into the wound, thereby facilitating the entry of the parasite into nearby cells. Once inside a cell, the parasite matures and multiplies. The organisms eventually burst out of the cell and into the bloodstream. They then travel to and infect various tissues, though they seem to have an affinity for muscle cells and neuroglia, cells that function to support neurons.

Chagas is a frightening and sometimes unpredictable disease. It is characterized by acute and chronic stages, both of which may be silent, meaning that obvious symptoms do not always manifest. Acute disease in which there are no or only very mild symptoms often goes undiagnosed and therefore untreated. As a result, the parasite remains in the body, setting the stage for chronic disease, which can take one or more decades to develop and is often fatal. Chronic disease often appears in the form of heart abnormalities, which may lead to sudden cardiac death or heart failure, or in the form of gastrointestinal disease, which arises due to the parasitic destruction of nerve cells.

Only two drugs—nifurtimox and benznidazole—are effective for the treatment of Chagas, and they are useful only in the acute stage of disease, when they can cure infection. If treatment is delayed or if infection persists, the chance for ridding the body completely of parasites drops significantly. More importantly, however, Chagas can be prevented in the first place. Improving the construction of houses, spraying insecticides, using bed nets, and improving basic hygiene can stop kissing bugs from getting into houses and transmitting the disease.

Prevention and proper treatment are the most practical ways to break the cycle of infection from insect to human to insect. These approaches also can reduce the likelihood that people migrating from one place to another will carry the parasite with them. But delivering the needed preventative, educational, and therapeutic resources to affected regions requires money and people. Researchers and health workers hope that their efforts this year will draw attention to Chagas. After all, a century has passed. Perhaps it is time to bring this otherwise preventable disease under control.