The World Health Organization (WHO) is updating its estimate of the global burden of foodborne illness for 2025, and researchers are calling for the inclusion of Chagas disease, which has not been considered in past estimates.
Chagas disease is caused by the parasiteTrypanosoma cruzi, and mainly occurs in Latin America. Consumption of meat or blood from animals infected by T. cruzi, as well as ingestion of other foods like fruit juice contaminated by infected insects or secretions from reservoir hosts, are some of the various routes of transmission for Chagas disease. The clinical outcomes of foodborne Chagas disease can be severe—more so than the outcomes of Chagas disease contracted via other routes of transmission—with close to 100 percent of patients experiencing fever. Other common symptoms include myalgia (muscle aches), headache, leg and/or facial oedema (swelling of tissues), pericardial effusion (buildup of extra fluid in the space around the heart), and abdominal pain. Less common symptoms can include diarrhea, skin rash, dyspnea (shortness of breath), heart palpitations, hepatomegaly (liver enlargement), splenomegaly (spleen enlargement), and hemorrhagic jaundice. Mortality from vector-borne Chagas disease is estimated to be 5–10 percent, whereas foodborne Chagas disease has an 8–40 percent mortality rate.