Classification: Protist - group Mastigophora (flagellated protozoa); hemoflagellate (infects the blood and human tissues)
Cell characteristics: Organisms are slender, with a wavy, undulating membrane and an anteriorly protruding flagellum with a visible nucleus.
Source: Humans, cattle and some wild animals.
Pathogenicity: Causative agent of Chagas' disease or American trypanosomiasis. Symptomology is somewhat similar to that of African sleeping sickness, except that the latter stages of the disease usually involve impairment of the heart and large intestine, rather than the CNS. Chronically infected persons with cardiac involvement usually die within two years. Important pathogen in Latin America.
Transmission Vector is the cone-nosed "kissing" bug. They transmit the infective trypanosome during a blood meal through their feces. Scratching introduces the organism into the bite wound or conjunctiva.
Trypanosoma cruzi
