Trypanosoma cruzi

Trypanosoma cruzi, the causative agent of Chagas’ disease, is treated with nifurtimox, a nitrofuran derivative. It is given orally and results in the production of activated forms of oxygen, which are lethal to the parasite. Other forms of trypanosomiasis (African trypanosomiasis, or sleeping sickness) are…

…infection with the flagellate protozoan Trypanosoma cruzi. It is transmitted to humans by bloodsucking reduviid bugs and is endemic in most rural areas of Central and South America. Chagas disease was discovered in 1908–09 by Brazilian physician Carlos Chagas.

…the various known species of Trypanosoma, only two—T. cruzi and T. brucei—cause disease in humans. Each species is responsible for a different disease. Trypanosoma cruzi causes American trypanosomiasis, also called Chagas disease, which occurs primarily in the Central and South American tropics and is spread by the bite of reduviid…

brucei, Trypanosoma cruzi, causes Chagas disease, or American trypanosomiasis. Vector hosts include bugs of the genus Rhodnius and other arthropods, such as lice and bedbugs. In humans the nonflagellated (amastigote) form of the parasite lives inside macrophage cells, the cells of the central nervous system, and…

…people worldwide are infected with T. cruzi (which can be acquired from several related insect vectors as well as from contaminated food and other sources), and more than 10,000 people die of Chagas disease annually.