Important in AIDS patients, particularly common in Haitian and African AIDS patients. Zoonotic infection acquired from pigs. May invade and cause ulceration of colon. Major killer of children in tropical Africa. Tropics and subtropics - Africa, Asia and South America.
Human is definitive host.
Transmitted by mosquitoes - Anopheles. 25,000 cases reported per year, but 55 million estimated at risk. Restricted to tropical Africa, largely rural areas. Zoonotic infections, with both wild and domestic animals acting as reservoir hosts of disease. Chagas' disease - initial acute phase of several weeks, subsides into chronic phase, which may continue for decades.