Chagas disease and Trypanosoma cruzi
Enfermedad de Chagas y Trypanosoma cruzi
- Date
- 1909 · confidence high
- Place
- Lassance, Minas Gerais, Brazil
- Credited to
- Carlos Chagas
- People
- 👤 Carlos Chagas1879–1934
- Field
- Life & health
What was discovered
Chagas described, in a single stroke, the parasite, its vector (the kissing bug or barbeiro), the reservoirs and the human disease, a unique achievement in the history of medicine. It affects some 6-7 million people.
Salvador Mazza (Argentina) confirmed and expanded the clinical picture in the 1920s-1940s.
What it led to
- control of triatomine bugs in Latin America
- screening of blood donors
- study of chagasic cardiomyopathy