There are two phases of Chagas disease: the acute phase and the chronic phase. Both phases can be symptom free or life threatening.
There are three phases of the disease: acute, indeterminate and chronic. In acute infection, symptoms can occur immediately following infection and can last approximately 2 months. Chronic infections can last for years.
The chronic intermediate phase occurs after the acute phase when infected individuals enter into a prolonged asymptomatic form of the disease. The infection remains silent during this phase and few or no parasites are found in the bloodstream. During this time, most people are unaware of their infection.
During the acute phase, a high number of parasites circulate in the blood, but in most cases symptoms are absent or mild and unspecific. In less than 50% of people bitten by a triatomine bug, characteristic first visible signs can be a skin lesion or a purplish swelling of the lids of one eye.
In the chronic phase of the disease, the parasite causes problems inside your heart muscle or intestine. If you have Chagas disease, you have about a 30% chance of developing complications. Treatment for Chagas disease includes taking an antiparasitic medicine for up to 2 months and supportive therapies.
Signs and symptoms of the chronic phase of Chagas disease may occur 10 to 20 years after initial infection, or they may never occur.
Once Chagas disease reaches the chronic phase, medications won't cure the disease. But, the drugs may be offered to people younger than age 50 because they may help slow the progression of the disease and its most serious complications.
Chagas disease is curable if treated soon after infection. Unfortunately, most infected people are unaware of their infection until it's too late, and they present with complications of chronic heart or bowel problems.
Early treatment for Chagas disease is the most successful. Recommended treatment may include: Antiparasitic medicine which you may need to take for up to 2 months.
The natural history of Chagas disease is divided into two phases, acute and chronic. The acute phase lasts approximately 8 weeks, and usually causes mild or no symptoms. Patients with chronic Chagas disease have lifelong infection in absence of treatment. Spontaneous cure is extremely rare.
Chagas disease causes approximately 10,000 deaths per year globally. Up to 30% of infected people develop symptoms.
Inflammation is the hallmark of Chagas disease. Early host immune responses include the activation of B-cell and T-cell (CD4+ and CD8+) lymphocytes that result in the production of anti-trypanosoma antibodies and direct cytotoxicity.
Chagas disease and sleeping sickness are both infectious diseases caused by the parasite Trypanosoma. In particular, Chagas disease is caused by the parasite Trypanosoma cruzi, while sleeping disease is caused by Trypanosoma gambiense. These parasites live in animals and can be transmitted from person to person.
Chagas disease has an acute and a chronic phase. If untreated, infection is lifelong. Acute Chagas disease occurs immediately after infection, and can last up to a few weeks or months. During the acute phase, parasites may be found in the circulating blood.
If the infection is not treated, it can progress to the chronic phase. Over several years or even decades, Chagas disease affects the central nervous system and the enteric nervous system, the digestion system and the heart.
The diagnosis of Chagas disease can be made by observation of the parasite in a blood smear by microscopic examination.
Decades after being infected, about 30 percent of those who have Chagas develop serious health effects, including cardiomyopathy (disease of the heart muscle), heart failure, heart rhythm problems, and strokes. Less common are disorders that affect the digestive system.
The involvement of the central nervous system (CNS) during human acute and chronic Chagas disease (CD) has been largely reported. Meningoencephalitis is a frequent finding during the acute infection, while during chronic phase the CNS involvement is often accompanied by behavioral and cognitive impairments.
The pathology of Chagas disease is based in an inmunoinflammatory reaction producing fibrosis and remodelling, mainly in the myocardium. In many cases these mechanisms result in a dilated cardiomyopathy with HF and reduced ejection fraction, frequent cardiac arrhythmias and different types of heart block.
The two drugs used to treat infection with T. cruzi are nifurtimox and benznidazole. Benznidazole is approved by FDA for use in children 2–12 years of age and is available from www.benznidazoletablets.com .
Chagas disease is an emerging disease in Australia. GPs are best placed to offer opportunistic Chagas disease screening to those at risk from endemic regions as they are likely to be the first point of contact.
Background: Chagas disease, resulting from the protozoan Trypanosoma cruzi, is an important cause of heart failure, stroke, arrhythmia, and sudden death.
Up to a third of people with Chagas will suffer heart damage that becomes evident only many years later and can lead to progressive heart failure or sudden death. Chagas kills more people in Latin America each year than any other parasitic disease, including malaria.
The phenotyping of the lesions revealed that cytotoxic CD45, CD8+ γδ, and CD8α+ T lymphocytes carry out the rejection of the chicken heart. These results suggest that the inflammatory cardiomyopathy of Chagas' disease is a genetically driven autoimmune disease.
Circulating parasite levels decrease rapidly within a few months and are undetectable by most methods during the chronic phase. Diagnosis of chronic Chagas disease is made by serologic tests for antibody to the parasite. A single test is not sufficiently sensitive and specific to make the diagnosis.