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Updated: Apr 21, 2026
Sexual Transmission of American Trypanosomes from Males and Females to Naive Mates
Published on: January 27, 2019
Evidence of autochthonous Chagas disease in southeastern Texas
Melissa N Garcia1, David Aguilar2, Rodion Gorchakov2
1Baylor College of Medicine, National School of Tropical Medicine, Section of Tropical Medicine, Houston, Texas; Baylor College of Medicine, Department of Medicine, Section of Cardiology, Houston, Texas; Gulf Coast Regional Blood Center, Houston, Texas; United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Division of Parasitic Diseases and Malaria, Atlanta, Georgia mnolan@bcm.edu.
Abstract:
Autochthonous transmission of Trypanosoma cruzi in the United States is rarely reported. Here, we describe five newly identified patients with autochthonously acquired infections from a small pilot study of positive blood donors in southeast Texas. Case-patients 1-4 were possibly infected near their residences, which were all in the same region ∼100 miles west of Houston. Case-patient 5 was a young male with considerable exposure from routine outdoor and camping activities associated with a youth civic organization. Only one of the five autochthonous case-patients received anti-parasitic treatment. Our findings suggest an unrecognized risk of human vector-borne transmission in southeast Texas. Education of physicians and public health officials is crucial for identifying the true disease burden and source of infection in Texas.
