Historical Perspectives on the Epidemiology of Human Chagas Disease in Texas and Recommendations for Enhanced Understanding of Clinical Chagas Disease in the Southern United States

Chagas disease (Trypanosoma cruzi infection) has recently been identified as an important neglected tropical disease in the United States. Anecdotally referred to as a “silent killer,” it leads to the development of potentially fatal cardiac disease in approximately 30% of those infected. In an atte...

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Main Authors:	Garcia, Melissa N., Woc-Colburn, Laila, Aguilar, David, Hotez, Peter J., Murray, Kristy O.
Format:	Online
Language:	English
Published:	Public Library of Science 2015
Online Access:	https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4634991/

id	pubmed-4634991
recordtype	oai_dc
spelling	pubmed-46349912015-11-13 Historical Perspectives on the Epidemiology of Human Chagas Disease in Texas and Recommendations for Enhanced Understanding of Clinical Chagas Disease in the Southern United States Garcia, Melissa N. Woc-Colburn, Laila Aguilar, David Hotez, Peter J. Murray, Kristy O. Review Chagas disease (Trypanosoma cruzi infection) has recently been identified as an important neglected tropical disease in the United States. Anecdotally referred to as a “silent killer,” it leads to the development of potentially fatal cardiac disease in approximately 30% of those infected. In an attempt to better understand the potential of Chagas disease as a significant underlying cause of morbidity in Texas, we performed a historical literature review to assess disease burden. Human reports of triatomine bites and disease exposure were found to be prevalent in Texas. Despite current beliefs that Chagas disease is a recently emerging disease, we report historical references dating as far back as 1935. Both imported cases and autochthonous transmission contribute to the historical disease burden in Texas. We end by discussing the current knowledge gaps, and recommend priorities for advancing further epidemiologic studies and their policy implications. Public Library of Science 2015-11-05 /pmc/articles/PMC4634991/ /pubmed/26540273 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pntd.0003981 Text en © 2015 Garcia et al http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are properly credited.
repository_type	Open Access Journal
institution_category	Foreign Institution
institution	US National Center for Biotechnology Information
building	NCBI PubMed
collection	Online Access
language	English
format	Online
author	Garcia, Melissa N. Woc-Colburn, Laila Aguilar, David Hotez, Peter J. Murray, Kristy O.
spellingShingle	Garcia, Melissa N. Woc-Colburn, Laila Aguilar, David Hotez, Peter J. Murray, Kristy O. Historical Perspectives on the Epidemiology of Human Chagas Disease in Texas and Recommendations for Enhanced Understanding of Clinical Chagas Disease in the Southern United States
author_facet	Garcia, Melissa N. Woc-Colburn, Laila Aguilar, David Hotez, Peter J. Murray, Kristy O.
author_sort	Garcia, Melissa N.
title	Historical Perspectives on the Epidemiology of Human Chagas Disease in Texas and Recommendations for Enhanced Understanding of Clinical Chagas Disease in the Southern United States
title_short	Historical Perspectives on the Epidemiology of Human Chagas Disease in Texas and Recommendations for Enhanced Understanding of Clinical Chagas Disease in the Southern United States
title_full	Historical Perspectives on the Epidemiology of Human Chagas Disease in Texas and Recommendations for Enhanced Understanding of Clinical Chagas Disease in the Southern United States
title_fullStr	Historical Perspectives on the Epidemiology of Human Chagas Disease in Texas and Recommendations for Enhanced Understanding of Clinical Chagas Disease in the Southern United States
title_full_unstemmed	Historical Perspectives on the Epidemiology of Human Chagas Disease in Texas and Recommendations for Enhanced Understanding of Clinical Chagas Disease in the Southern United States
title_sort	historical perspectives on the epidemiology of human chagas disease in texas and recommendations for enhanced understanding of clinical chagas disease in the southern united states
description	Chagas disease (Trypanosoma cruzi infection) has recently been identified as an important neglected tropical disease in the United States. Anecdotally referred to as a “silent killer,” it leads to the development of potentially fatal cardiac disease in approximately 30% of those infected. In an attempt to better understand the potential of Chagas disease as a significant underlying cause of morbidity in Texas, we performed a historical literature review to assess disease burden. Human reports of triatomine bites and disease exposure were found to be prevalent in Texas. Despite current beliefs that Chagas disease is a recently emerging disease, we report historical references dating as far back as 1935. Both imported cases and autochthonous transmission contribute to the historical disease burden in Texas. We end by discussing the current knowledge gaps, and recommend priorities for advancing further epidemiologic studies and their policy implications.
publisher	Public Library of Science
publishDate	2015
url	https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4634991/
_version_	1613498148719689728

Historical Perspectives on the Epidemiology of Human Chagas Disease in Texas and Recommendations for Enhanced Understanding of Clinical Chagas Disease in the Southern United States

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