The new vector species and their implications on the eco-epidemiology of the chagas disease
Jane Costa
Instituto Oswaldo Cruz, Brazil
: J Immunol Tech Infect Dis
Abstract
Chagas Disease was first described in 1909 by Carlos Chagas, 106 years ago. Despite the success achieved in the interruption of the vectorial transmission in several Latin American countries, Chagas disease remains as a major public health concern. In addition to that, due to the changes in its epidemiologic profile, new challenges for the monitoring actions and achieving the disease control has been imposed to the governments and health authorities. The etiological agent, a protozoan named Trypanosoma cruzi, is mainly transmitted to mammalian hosts by triatomine vectors, and circulates in complex sylvatic and domiciliary cycles. Lent & Wygodzinsky (1979) published the most relevant and complete review on the Triatominae subfamily, including 111 vector species and, since then, 37 new vectors have been described from distinct countries, now totalizing 148 species; all of them are actual or potential vectors. Almost half of that total (65) occurs in Brazil and, 35 species are endemic in that country what makes it as the most biodiverse in terms of triatomine fauna. The use of multidisciplinary approaches has been a key point to better understand the eco-epidemiology of the Chagas disease vectors, and some of the most used tools are here stressed: i- molecular biology made possible to distinguish precisely the new taxa; to recognize cryptic species and complex of species and, to evaluate their phylogenetic relationships; ii- the geometric morphometrics brought relevant contributions not only to the systematics of the triatomine group but also to check for evolutionary hypothesis; iiithe development of the ecological niche models allowed mapping the species potential distributions and to analyze their possibilities to invade new areas spreading the risk of transmission of T. cruzi. The integrated analysis of those distinct tools has been crucial to direct more precise measures and strategies for controlling the Chagas disease.
Biography
Jane Costa has completed his Ph.D at the age of 36 years from Instituto Oswaldo Cruz/Fiocruz, Brazil and postdoctoral studies from Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Division of Parasitic Diseases, Entomology Branch, Atlanta, GA, USA. She is the Curator of the Entomological Collection and the Head of the Laboratory of the Entomological Biodiversity, at the Instituto Oswaldo Cruz, Fiocruz, a premier scientific research organization on public health. She has published more than 65 papers in reputed journals and serving as scientific referee and consultant for several funding agencies.
E mail: jcosta@ioc.fiocruz.br
