Preface

BUSTAMANTE, JUAN MANUEL; AOKI, MARIA DEL PILAR

BIOCHIMICA ET BIOPHYSICA ACTA. MOLECULAR BASIS OF DISEASE

ELSEVIER SCIENCE BV

Lugar: Amsterdam; Año: 2020

0925-4439

hagas disease or American trypanosomiasis is caused by infection with the protozoan parasite Trypanosoma cruzi (T. cruzi). Although more than 110 years have elapsed since the first description of a clinical case of Chagas disease1, it still constitutes a major public health problem in Latin America due to its prevalence, morbidity, and mortality. A minimum of 7 million people is estimated to be infected worldwide, mostly in Latin America countries where the parasite is transmitted mostly by triatomine bug vectors to humans by contact with infected faeces or urine. Additionally, as a consequence of immigration Chagas disease has emerged outside of its typical endemic regions, affecting countries such as the United States of America (USA), Canada and many European and Western Pacific countries, where disease transmission channels moved towards non vectorial routes, such as blood transfusion, congenital transmission and organ transplants. Nevertheless, autochthonous T. cruzi infection vi