Identifying Chagas disease in Australia: an emerging challenge for general practitioners

Chagas disease, a parasitic infection by Trypanosoma cruzi, is endemic in Latin America and affects 8-10 million people. It is a major emerging infection in Europe and the USA. The routes of transmission include congenital, vectorial means and through unscreened blood or organ donation. Potentially fatal complications include cardiomyopathy with conduction abnormality, arrhythmia, thromboembolic cerebrovascular events and digestive tract involvement (mega-syndrome).

We describe a case, the second reported in Australia, and provide readers with updated guidelines on the clinical management of Chagas disease.

Treatment affords optimal results when applied early in the course of the disease. General practitioners are best placed to play a central part in the early identification and referral of infected individuals. Indeed, the decades-long asymptomatic latent period between infection and overt clinical manifestation provides an ideal context for screening and implementation of early effective interventions.