Clinical Features of Acute Chagas Disease Following Oral Transmission of Trypanosoma cruzi

 

Features:

(1) The development of acute Chagas disease in multiple patients.

(2) All of the patients shared ingestion of food or drink with environmental contamination.

(3) There is exclusion of other means of infection (no exposure to triatomid/reduviid bugs, blood transfusion).

 

The environmental contamination may consist of:

(1) reduviid bugs that are inadvertently crushed into the food

(2) feces of marsupials (opossums) containing trypanosomes

 

Reported sources of transmission:

(1) fresh squeezed sugar cane juice

(2) fresh vegetables

 

Incubation period: 1 to 3 weeks

 

Clinical findings:

(1) bilateral eyelid edema

(2) acute cardiomyopathy with heart failure

(3) skin rash

(4) mild hepatosplenomegaly

(5) mild lymphadenopathy

(6) trypanosomes seen in the peripheral blood

(7) high mortality rate