Chagas disease in the United States: a cause for concern in Louisiana?

Chagas disease, or American trypanosomiasis, is an arthropod-borne protozoan infectious disease, hyperendemic throughout Latin America, caused by Trypanosoma cruzi, and transmitted to man by reduviid or kissing bugs. Throughout the Americas, Chagas disease shares many life cycle features with malaria, including transmission of infectious stages by local arthropods, exacerbation or reactivation of subclinical infections by immunosuppression (particularly HIV/AIDS) and pregnancy, and both transplacental and transfusion-related transmission. Although most cases of Chagas disease in the United States (US) are imported, significant numbers of Latin American immigrants contribute to the US blood supply and donate cadaveric tissues and organs for human transplantation, thus increasing the risks of both transfusion and transplantation-transmitted Chagas disease from unscreened blood products and transplantable tissues and organs. In addition, the risks of local reduviid bug-transmitted autochthonous or indigenous Chagas disease are also increasing as more immigrant workers enter the displaced populations of the Gulf South, including Louisiana, to assist in rebuilding efforts after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. Although screening donated blood products for malaria remains impractical, consideration should now be given to serologically screening all donated blood and organs for Chagas disease in the US, as in most countries of Latin America, especially in high risk areas of California and the southern US, including Louisiana.