CONICET | Buscador de Institutos y Recursos Humanos

Chagas is a complex and multidimensional socio-environmental health phenomenon, in which different components converge and interact. Historically, this disease has been associated with insect vectors found in the rural environment. However, in the American continent, we are currently facing a new paradigm, in which different scenarios allow maintaining the vectorial transmission of the parasite through triatomine populations that either enter dwellings intrusively or colonize urban environments. Records of scientific reports (1909-2020 period) available in the PubMed and LILACS search engines were retrieved, using three criteria according to the main triatomine genera with epidemiological importance and to the general scientific production on Chagas disease in urban contexts. The complete review of the documents considered in this work allowed establishing a basis about the occurrence of triatomines in urban areas, the infestation of dwellings and green spaces, the circulation of T. cruzi in urban areas, and the size of the urban agglomerates where these events occur. Our results show that the urban infestation in the Americas is associated with 18 species of triatomines with varying degrees of adaptation to urban areas. The diagnosis of T. cruzi infection revealed that the parasite is transmitted by 17 different species of triatomines. The results also showed that the spatial and ecological coverage of triatomine infestation and parasite infection extends across the continent from Argentina to southern USA and that urban infestation has been increasing in the last three decades. An important point to highlight is that at least 18 species of triatomines belonging to the genera Panstrongylus, Rhodnius and Triatoma occur in urban areas. Infestation of triatomine species occurs in all types of cities (small, medium and large, including megalopolises). In this oral presentation, we will also focus our attention on the occurrence of Triatoma infestans and T. cruzi in San Juan, Argentina. Urban Chagas represents a new challenge that adds a different edge to the problem of Chagas disease due to the particular characteristics of the way of life in urban agglomerates. This will require adaptations of the programs of control of vector populations in urban areas and interaction with the community and academy.