Chagas disease

noun Cha·gas disease \ ˈshä-gəs- , -gə-səz- \

variants: or Chagas' disease

Definition of Chagas disease

: a tropical American disease that is caused by a trypanosome (Trypanosoma cruzi) transmitted chiefly by blood-sucking insects (genus Triatoma, Rhodnius, and Panstrongylus) and that occurs in both an acute and chronic form

Note: The acute form of Chagas disease lasts for several weeks to months and is marked by mild symptoms (such as fever, fatigue, or swelling at the infection site) or rarely by serious symptoms (such as myocarditis or meningoencephalitis) but is often asymptomatic. The acute form may sometimes progress years later to a chronic form characterized especially by cardiac and gastrointestinal complications (such as cardiomyopathy, irregular heart rhythm, and enlargement of the colon or esophagus).

Chagas disease kills more Latin Americans than any other parasitic illness.
—The Economist

Chagas' disease spreads via insect fecal contamination of its own bite.
—Phil Gunby

Origin and Etymology of chagas disease

Carlos Chagas †1934 Brazilian physician

NEW! Time Traveler

First Known Use: 1912

See Words from the same year

Medical Dictionary

Chagas disease

noun Cha·gas disease \ ˈshäg-əs- \

variants: or Chagas' disease \ˈshäg-əs-(əz-)\

medical Definition of Chagas disease

: a tropical American disease that is caused by a parasitic protozoan of the genus Trypanosoma (T. cruzi) transmitted chiefly by blood-sucking reduviid insects (genus Triatoma, Rhodnius, and Panstrongylus) and that occurs in both an acute and chronic form

— called also American trypanosomiasis

Biographical Note for chagas disease

Chagas, Carlos Ribeiro Justiniano (1879–1934), Brazilian physician. Early in his career Chagas undertook a malaria control campaign that used pyrethrum to disinfect households and that proved to be the first successful campaign against malaria in the history of Brazil. During 1909 and 1910 Chagas discovered and described the disease named after him. He discovered that it is caused by a species of trypanosome transmitted by bloodsucking reduviid bugs and that it is manifested by fever and edema and later by cardiac disturbances. He also described its epidemiology and some of its pathogenic hosts.