Retrospective study of the epidemiological overview of the transmission of Chagas disease in the State of Acre, South-Western Amazonia, from 2009 to 2016

Abstract

Introduction: Chagas disease (CD), also known as American Trypanosomiasis, is an infectious parasitic disease caused by the etiologic agent Trypanosoma cruzi. It is considered endemic in the low-income population and is classified by the WHO as a neglected tropical disease. In the state of Acre, there is almost no scientific data regarding the epidemiology of CD, even though the first autochthonous case was registered in the 1980s.
 Objective: To analyze the epidemiological panorama of the transmission of Chagas disease in the State of Acre, Brazil, from 2009 to 2016.
 Methods: A survey of the occurrence of Chagas disease in the State of Acre was performed using public domain secondary data from the Brazil’s Notifiable Diseases Information System of SUS (publicly funded health care system), and from the SUS Database of the Health Surveillance Foundation of the State of Acre. Data were collected from the following variables: gender, age group, form of contagion, distribution by region and municipality, perimeter and seasonality.
 Result: Forty-two cases of CD were confirmed, with an increase of more than 300% from 2015 to 2016 and a frequency coefficient of 3.06 cases per 100,000 people, and in the Tarauacá/Envira region, the probability of a person contracting CD was 600% higher than the state mean.
 Conclusion: We found that in the state of Acre, in the period from 2009 to 2016, most cases of CD occurred in 2016, in the Tarauacá/Envira region, mainly in the municipality of Feijó, in the rural zone, from July to October, in the age group of 0 to 30 years, being the oral form the main route of transmission and presenting no statistical difference between men and women.

Chagas Disease in the Western Brazilian Amazon: Epidemiological Overview from 2007 to 2018

“…Results of other studies conducted in the same geographical region corroborate with those of our study, which reported a higher rate of infection in rural areas. This finding is because of the populations' higher consumption of açaí and the processing of this fruit without following proper sanitary procedures, thus increasing the possibility of outbreaks by oral transmission 10,14 .…”

Trypanosoma cruzi vectors in a periurban area of the Western Brazilian Amazon

“…However, most of the species described in the previous paragraph, have not yet been recorded in Jurua Valley, a region that borders Peru, and has Cruzeiro do Sul as its main city, a region in which Chagas disease outbreaks have already occurred, but only a few studies have been carried out in this area 6 . This is the reason why additional studies are welcome in this region in order to understand the diversity of Chagas disease vectors.…”

Investigation of the triatomine (Hemiptera: Triatominae) fauna and its infection by Trypanosoma cruzi Chagas (Kinetoplastida: Trypanosomatidae), in an area with an outbreak of Chagas disease in the Brazilian South-Western Amazon

“…Although the first case of CD in the state of Acre was recorded in the 1980s (Barata et al 1988), it was the outbreaks from 2016 onwards that raised the concern about the disease, given the increase in notifications and its intrinsic relationship with the consumption of contaminated food. An example is the outbreak that occurred in the municipality of Rodrigues Alves in 2016 (Oliveira et al 2018). Since there are no studies on the vector species occurring in this region, studies are needed to increase the knowledge about this subject and thus raise the community's awareness of prophylactic measures, serving as a tool for guiding health surveillance in the establishment of strategies for combating new outbreaks.…”

“…Since there are no studies on the vector species occurring in this region, studies are needed to increase the knowledge about this subject and thus raise the community's awareness of prophylactic measures, serving as a tool for guiding health surveillance in the establishment of strategies for combating new outbreaks. Thus, this study is aimed at investigating the occurrence of triatomines and their infection by T. cruzi in an area of CD outbreak in the municipality of Rodrigues Alves, Acre, Brazil, where an outbreak was reported with five cases confirmed during February 2016, all of them apparently caused by oral transmission, probably by consumption of "açaí" juice contaminated with feces from triatomines (Oliveira et al 2018).…”