Chagas disease is still endemic in large areas of Latin America
where over 28 million persons are exposed to the risk of infection
and at least 12 million individuals are infected with Trypanosoma
cruzi. Until today there is neither any effective medical treatment
for chronic cases nor any preventative vaccine (Dias, 2009). This
parasitic disease is commonly enzootic in too broad a range of sylvatic
hosts and vectors over too large a geographic range to be
eradicated. Within the Amazon River basin, which was formerly a
hypoendemic region for Chagas disease, recent dramatic alterations
of the environment by human activities have increased human
exposures to infected sylvatic vectors, and the increasing incidence
of Chagas disease must now be regarded as an emergent public
health problem