It should be borne in mind that Trypanosoma cruzi is characterized by a long existence in the host organism.
Acute American trypanosomiasis. If symptoms persist for less than 2 months. The parasite circulates in large numbers in the blood.
Clinical manifestations may be absent for a long time, and the trigger for the deterioration of a person’s condition is severe damage to internal organs. From the moment the pathological agent enters the human body until the first signs appear, it takes from 1 to 3 weeks, but more often the incubation period lasts 10 days.
The acute and chronic course of Chagas disease differs in clinical presentation.
The chronic form often manifests itself 10–20 years after infection. Symptoms of Chagas disease in such a situation are as follows.
The infectious disease specialist needs to independently perform several manipulations: The danger of Chagas disease is not only in the development of a large number of amantadine complications, but in the fact that today the therapy is ineffective. Conservative treatment involves taking such medications.
Children and persons with severe damage to internal organs are most often fatal. Howevereven with timely therapy, the outcome will not always be favorable: therapy can eliminate only clinical manifestations, but does not give full confidence in the elimination of intracellular disorders. Trypanosomes live only in the tropics - the South American species Trypanosoma cruzi is the causative agent of Chagas disease, and the African species - sleeping sickness. For South America, these are areas from Chile and Argentina to Mexico. An estimated 1.8 million Mexicans are infected with this little-known disease, according to MSF activity reports for 2005.
The carrier of the disease are bugs of the subfamily Triatominae. Bedbugs are spread by domestic and wild animals, rodents, and infected people. The bugs themselves become infected when they bite sick people and can transmit trypanosomes in a week or two, and after that throughout their lives (up to two years).
The disease is dangerous throughout the year, at all ages, but more often in children. Adults are usually asymptomatic. Isolated cases are typical, but with a massive attack of infected triatomic bugs on people, epidemic outbreaks are possible. The disease occurs mainly in rural areas or on the outskirts of symmetrel, where there are adobe and other dilapidated structures inhabited by triatomine bugs. The patient himself becomes contagious 9-11 days after infection, and the level of danger decreases only in the second stage of the disease.
The first (acute) stage lasts about two months after infection. During the acute stage, a large number of parasites circulate in the blood. In most cases, the symptoms of the disease are absent or mild. Less frequently, fever, headache, swollen lymph nodes, pallor, muscle pain, difficulty breathing, swelling and pain in the abdomen and chest are observed. In less than 50% of patients, the characteristic first visible signs may be skin lesions (steps) or purple edema of the eyelids of one eye in combination with preauricular lymphadenitis (Roman's sign).
In subsequent years, the infection can lead to sudden death due to heart failure caused by progressive cardiomyopathy. Diagnosis is based on the clinical picture, interview data and laboratory results.
During the second stage, the parasites concentrate mainly in the heart or musculature of the digestive tract. Up to 30% of patients suffer from cardiac disorders and up to 10% from changes in the digestive organs (characterized by an increase in the esophagus or colon), the nervous system, or a number of other organs.
At an early stage, trypanosomes can be detected by microscopic examination of peripheral blood. In the chronic stage, the number of parasites decreases and it becomes difficult to detect them, the diagnosis is confirmed using serological tests or xenodiagnosis - the use of clean bugs and their check for the presence of trypanosomes. Blood cultures or its introduction to rodents are also used. The Machado-Guerreiro test is very effective.