The improbable transmission of Trypanosoma cruzi to human: the missing link in the dynamics and control of Chagas disease.
Chagas disease has a major impact on human health in Latin America and is becoming of global concern due to international migrations. Trypanosoma cruzi, the etiological agent of the disease, is one of the rare human parasites transmitted by the feces of its vector, as it is unable to reach the saliv...
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ftdoajarticles:oai:doaj.org/article:0de764869ea84921b6db2565bebf9682 2023-05-15T15:15:18+02:00 The improbable transmission of Trypanosoma cruzi to human: the missing link in the dynamics and control of Chagas disease. Pierre Nouvellet Eric Dumonteil Sébastien Gourbière 2013-11-01T00:00:00Z https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pntd.0002505 https://doaj.org/article/0de764869ea84921b6db2565bebf9682 EN eng Public Library of Science (PLoS) http://europepmc.org/articles/PMC3820721?pdf=render https://doaj.org/toc/1935-2727 https://doaj.org/toc/1935-2735 1935-2727 1935-2735 doi:10.1371/journal.pntd.0002505 https://doaj.org/article/0de764869ea84921b6db2565bebf9682 PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases, Vol 7, Iss 11, p e2505 (2013) Arctic medicine. Tropical medicine RC955-962 Public aspects of medicine RA1-1270 article 2013 ftdoajarticles https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pntd.0002505 2022-12-31T12:07:08Z Chagas disease has a major impact on human health in Latin America and is becoming of global concern due to international migrations. Trypanosoma cruzi, the etiological agent of the disease, is one of the rare human parasites transmitted by the feces of its vector, as it is unable to reach the salivary gland of the insect. This stercorarian transmission is notoriously poorly understood, despite its crucial role in the ecology and evolution of the pathogen and the disease. The objective of this study was to quantify the probability of T. cruzi vectorial transmission to humans, and to use such an estimate to predict human prevalence from entomological data. We developed several models of T. cruzi transmission to estimate the probability of transmission from vector to host. Using datasets from the literature, we estimated the probability of transmission per contact with an infected triatomine to be 5.8 × 10(-4) (95%CI: [2.6 11.0] × 10(-4)). This estimate was consistent across triatomine species, robust to variations in other parameters, and corresponded to 900-4,000 contacts per case. Our models subsequently allowed predicting human prevalence from vector abundance and infection rate in 7/10 independent datasets covering various triatomine species and epidemiological situations. This low probability of T. cruzi transmission reflected well the complex and unlikely mechanism of transmission via insect feces, and allowed predicting human prevalence from basic entomological data. Although a proof of principle study would now be valuable to validate our models' predictive ability in an even broader range of entomological and ecological settings, our quantitative estimate could allow switching the evaluation of disease risk and vector control program from purely entomological indexes to parasitological measures, as commonly done for other major vector borne diseases. This might lead to different quantitative perspectives as these indexes are well known not to be proportional one to another. Article in Journal/Newspaper Arctic Human health Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles Arctic PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases 7 11 e2505 |
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Open Polar |
collection |
Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles |
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ftdoajarticles |
language |
English |
topic |
Arctic medicine. Tropical medicine RC955-962 Public aspects of medicine RA1-1270 |
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Arctic medicine. Tropical medicine RC955-962 Public aspects of medicine RA1-1270 Pierre Nouvellet Eric Dumonteil Sébastien Gourbière The improbable transmission of Trypanosoma cruzi to human: the missing link in the dynamics and control of Chagas disease. |
topic_facet |
Arctic medicine. Tropical medicine RC955-962 Public aspects of medicine RA1-1270 |
description |
Chagas disease has a major impact on human health in Latin America and is becoming of global concern due to international migrations. Trypanosoma cruzi, the etiological agent of the disease, is one of the rare human parasites transmitted by the feces of its vector, as it is unable to reach the salivary gland of the insect. This stercorarian transmission is notoriously poorly understood, despite its crucial role in the ecology and evolution of the pathogen and the disease. The objective of this study was to quantify the probability of T. cruzi vectorial transmission to humans, and to use such an estimate to predict human prevalence from entomological data. We developed several models of T. cruzi transmission to estimate the probability of transmission from vector to host. Using datasets from the literature, we estimated the probability of transmission per contact with an infected triatomine to be 5.8 × 10(-4) (95%CI: [2.6 11.0] × 10(-4)). This estimate was consistent across triatomine species, robust to variations in other parameters, and corresponded to 900-4,000 contacts per case. Our models subsequently allowed predicting human prevalence from vector abundance and infection rate in 7/10 independent datasets covering various triatomine species and epidemiological situations. This low probability of T. cruzi transmission reflected well the complex and unlikely mechanism of transmission via insect feces, and allowed predicting human prevalence from basic entomological data. Although a proof of principle study would now be valuable to validate our models' predictive ability in an even broader range of entomological and ecological settings, our quantitative estimate could allow switching the evaluation of disease risk and vector control program from purely entomological indexes to parasitological measures, as commonly done for other major vector borne diseases. This might lead to different quantitative perspectives as these indexes are well known not to be proportional one to another. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Pierre Nouvellet Eric Dumonteil Sébastien Gourbière |
author_facet |
Pierre Nouvellet Eric Dumonteil Sébastien Gourbière |
author_sort |
Pierre Nouvellet |
title |
The improbable transmission of Trypanosoma cruzi to human: the missing link in the dynamics and control of Chagas disease. |
title_short |
The improbable transmission of Trypanosoma cruzi to human: the missing link in the dynamics and control of Chagas disease. |
title_full |
The improbable transmission of Trypanosoma cruzi to human: the missing link in the dynamics and control of Chagas disease. |
title_fullStr |
The improbable transmission of Trypanosoma cruzi to human: the missing link in the dynamics and control of Chagas disease. |
title_full_unstemmed |
The improbable transmission of Trypanosoma cruzi to human: the missing link in the dynamics and control of Chagas disease. |
title_sort |
improbable transmission of trypanosoma cruzi to human: the missing link in the dynamics and control of chagas disease. |
publisher |
Public Library of Science (PLoS) |
publishDate |
2013 |
url |
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pntd.0002505 https://doaj.org/article/0de764869ea84921b6db2565bebf9682 |
geographic |
Arctic |
geographic_facet |
Arctic |
genre |
Arctic Human health |
genre_facet |
Arctic Human health |
op_source |
PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases, Vol 7, Iss 11, p e2505 (2013) |
op_relation |
http://europepmc.org/articles/PMC3820721?pdf=render https://doaj.org/toc/1935-2727 https://doaj.org/toc/1935-2735 1935-2727 1935-2735 doi:10.1371/journal.pntd.0002505 https://doaj.org/article/0de764869ea84921b6db2565bebf9682 |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pntd.0002505 |
container_title |
PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases |
container_volume |
7 |
container_issue |
11 |
container_start_page |
e2505 |
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1766345672513028096 |