Indigenous Chagas' Disease (American Trypanosomiasis) in California

Abstract

CHAGAS' disease (American trypanosomiasis) is an infection caused by the protozoan parasite<i>Trypanosoma</i><i>cruzi</i>. Despite the presence of the parasite in<i>Triatoma</i>insects (the vector of T<i>cruzi</i>) and mammals across the southern United States,¹only two patients with indigenous Chagas' disease have been described^2,3; both were infants from Texas in 1955. We report herein the first recognized case of indigenous Chagas' disease in California and the first case reported in the United States since 1955. <h3>Report of a Case</h3> In August 1982, a 56-year-old woman from Lake Don Pedro, Calif, 120 miles east of San Francisco, was admitted to the hospital after 16 days of fever. The patient had lived in east-central California for 19 years. She had traveled outside the United States only once, when she visited the California-Mexico border town of Mexicali for an afternoon in 1978. She had never received blood transfusions, nor did