Artículos de revistas
Emerging Chagas Disease : trophic network and cycle of transmission of Trypanosoma cruzi from palm trees in the Amazon
Fecha
2001-02Registro en:
Autor
Teixeira, Antonio Raimundo Lima Cruz
Monteiro, Pedro Sadi
Rebêlo, José Manuel Macário
Argañaraz, Enrique Roberto
Vieira, Daniela
Pires, Liana Lauria
Nascimento, Rubens José do
Vexenat, Cássia A.
Silva, Antônio Rafael da
Ault, Steven Kenyon
Costa, Jackson Mauricio Lopes
Institución
Resumen
ABSTRACT A trophic network involving molds, invertebrates, and vertebrates, ancestrally
adapted to the palm tree (Attalaea phalerata) microhabitat, maintains enzootic
Trypanosoma cruzi infections in the Amazonian county Paço do Lumiar, state of
Maranhão, Brazil. We assessed seropositivity for T. cruzi infections in the human
population of the county, searched in palm trees for the triatomines that harbor these
infections, and gathered demographic, environmental, and socioeconomic data.
Rhodnius pictipes and R. neglectus in palm-tree frond clefts or in houses were infected
with T. cruzi (57% and 41%, respectively). Human blood was found in 6.8% of R. pictipes
in houses, and 9 of 10 wild Didelphis marsupialis had virulent T. cruzi infections.
Increasing human population density, rain forest deforestation, and human predation of
local fauna are risk factors for human T. cruzi infections.