Chagas’ disease (American; trypanosomiasis, trypa­nosomiasis cruzi) is an illness of the Americas which can take the form of either an acute, febrile, general­ized infection or a chronic process.

The cause is a protozoan, Trypanosoma cruzi, which is harbored by both domesticated and wild animals. When it is transmitted to humans by insects, this essentially Untreatable disease is associated with fever, edemas, and enlargement of the lymph nodes and can cause dilation of parts of the digestive tract leading to megacolon and megaesophagus as well as cardiac enlargement and failure. In fact, Chagas’ disease is the leading cause of cardiac death of young adults in parts of South America.