Other Forms of Transmission

Publisher Summary This chapter discusses the four modes of T. cruzi contamination. In addition to the natural transmission of Trypanosoma cruzi by vectors or from a mother to a newborn, the parasite may be transmitted by transfusion of infected blood, at the time of an organ transplant from an infected donor or to an infected recipient, by a laboratory accident with contaminated samples, or by an oral route. Presently, safe policies have been implemented to control the blood supply in blood banks in endemic countries and in most of the nonendemic countries, where there are many Latin American migrants, and to control the status of a donor or receiver of an organ transplant. To prevent laboratory accidents, severe measures exist to avoid the risks of contamination, and working conditions are highly managed. Oral transmission seems to be developing particularly in the Amazonian area because of the custom to drink juice from fruits of palm trees in which generalist triatomines are living. Education of the population is absolutely essential to control this kind of transmission.