Epidemiological Modeling of Trypanosoma cruzi: Low Stercorarian Transmission and Failure of Host Adaptive Immunity Explain the Frequency of Mixed Infections in Humans

NICOLÁS TOMASINI, PAULA GABRIELA RAGONE, SÉBASTIEN GOURBIÈRE, JUAN PABLO APARICIO, PATRICIO DIOSQUE; JUAN P APARICIO

PLOS COMPUTATIONAL BIOLOGY

PUBLIC LIBRARY SCIENCE

Lugar: San Francisco; Año: 2017

1553-734X

People living in areas with active vector-borne transmission of Chagas disease have multiple contacts with its causative agent, Trypanosoma cruzi. Reinfections by T. cruzi are possible at least in animal models leading to lower or even hardly detectable parasitaemia. In humans, although reinfections are thought to have major public health implications by increasing the risk of chronic manifestations of the disease, there is little quantitative knowledge about their frequency and the timing of parasite re-inoculation in the course of the disease.