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Trypanosoma cruzi

  • Living reference work entry
  • First Online:
Encyclopedia of Parasitology

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Name

Greek: trypanon = boring system; soma = body. The species name honors the Brazilian scientist Oswaldo Cruz (1872–1917), who offered the physician Carlos Chagas (1879–1934) a laboratory position. During his work in this lab, he detected the life cycle of this parasite.

Geographic Distribution/Epidemiology

This parasite is distributed in several species of raptor bugs in South America, Central America, and Southern and Western United States reaching from Argentina/Chile until California. In these regions around 50–80 million people are infected – living mostly under poor social conditions. Due to recently increasing worldwide migration, the parasite is now also found in numerous humans in Europe and Asia, too. Chagas disease – non-epidemic cases.

Morphology/Life Cycle

Besides humans, many reservoir hosts such as armadillos, opossums, dogs, cats, monkeys, and rodents (all belonging to a so-called sylvatic cycle) may suffer from Chagas’ disease. They all become infected by...

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Further Reading

  • Ayo CM et al (2013) Genetic susceptibility to chagas disease: an overview about the infection and about the association between disease and the immune response genes. Biomed Res Int 2013:ID 284729

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  • Barrias ES et al (2013) Trypanosoma cruzi: entry into mammalian host cells and parasitophorous vacuole formation. Front Immunol 4:1–10

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  • Martins-Melo FR et al. (2014) Prevalence of chagas disease in Brazil: a systematic review. Acta Tropica 130:167–174

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  • Piekarski G (1987) Parasites in Tables. Springer, Heidelberg

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  • Redhead SA et al (2006) Pneumocystis and Trypanosoma cruzi. Nomenclature and typifications. J Eukaryot Microbiol 53:2–11

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institut für Zoomorphologie, Zellbiologie und Parasitologie, Universitätsstraße 1, 40225, Düsseldorf, Germany

    Heinz Mehlhorn

Authors
  1. Heinz Mehlhorn
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Heinz Mehlhorn .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Zoomorphology and Parasitology, Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf, Düsseldorf, Germany

    Heinz Mehlhorn

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© 2015 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

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Mehlhorn, H. (2015). Trypanosoma cruzi . In: Mehlhorn, H. (eds) Encyclopedia of Parasitology. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-27769-6_4458-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-27769-6_4458-1

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-642-27769-6

  • eBook Packages: Springer Reference Biomedicine and Life SciencesReference Module Biomedical and Life Sciences

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