**1. Introduction**

The pathogenic protozoan *Trypanosoma cruzi* (*T. cruzi*) is the causative agent of Chagas' disease, and more than 150 species of mammals are affected by this unicellular parasite, including humans. The parasite was discovered in 1909 by the Brazilian physician Carlos Chagas, while dissecting assassin bugs (*Reduviidae*) from the subfamily *Triatominae* that act as vectors and hosts for the parasite, and was later named after Chagas' scientific mentor Oswaldo Cruz [1].

Chagas' disease, also termed American trypanosomiasis, causes the third largest disease burden of the tropics after malaria and schistosomiasis [2] and is responsible for higher morbidity and mortality than any other parasitic infection in America [3]. According to surveys of the World Health Organization (WHO) from 2014, six to seven million people worldwide are estimated to be infected with *T. cruzi*, while around 14,000 patients die annually as a result of the parasitosis. An overview of the geographic distribution of Chagas' disease is presented in **Figure 1**.

The link between poverty and dissemination of Chagas' disease is striking, as it particularly affects people living in simple huts made of mud and wood with roofs of straw or palm leaves in rural areas of Latin America, where the predatory bugs have easy access. In the most important endemic areas, vectors include *Panstrongylus megistus, Triatoma infestans, T. dimidiata, T. pallidipennis*, and *Rhodnius prolixus* [4] (**Figure 2**). Non-vectorial transmission, such as the ingestion of *T. cruzi*-contaminated food and congenital transmission from the mother to the fetus [5] as well as blood transfusion and organ transplantation, increase the number of people at risk, estimated at 100 million worldwide. Owing to international migration, isolated cases of Chagas' disease in nonendemic countries are increasingly being recognized.

**Figure 1.** Geographical distribution of Chagas' disease. Dark blue indicates endemic countries and light blue nonendemic countries.

**Figure 2.** *Meccus pallidipennis* (syn. *Triatoma pallidipennis*, Hemiptera: *Reduviidae*) from the subfamily *Triatominae* as a vector for *T. cruzi*.
