Chagas disease, chronic 2025 Case Definition

NOTE: A surveillance case definition is a set of uniform criteria used to define a disease for public health surveillance. Surveillance case definitions enable public health officials to classify and count cases consistently across reporting jurisdictions. Surveillance case definitions are not intended to be used by healthcare providers for making a clinical diagnosis or determining how to meet an individual patient’s health needs.

Subtype(s)

Chagas disease
Chagas disease, acute
Chagas disease, congenital

Laboratory Criteria

Confirmatory Laboratory Evidence:^‡

Detection of IgG antibodies specific to T. cruzi by at least two diagnostic tests using two different
antigen preparations.^{^}

Presumptive Laboratory Evidence:^‡

Detection of IgG antibodies specific to T. cruzi by a single diagnostic test,

Positive blood, organ, or HCT/P donor screen for T. cruzi.^{^^}

Note: The categorical labels used here to stratify laboratory evidence are intended to support the standardization of case classifications for public health surveillance. The categorical labels should not be used to interpret the utility or validity of any laboratory test methodology.

^ See Appendix 3 for more information related to antigen preparations for T. cruzi-specific IgG tests .

^^ Blood, organ, and HCT/P donor screening does not constitute diagnostic testing.

‡ Includes chronic indeterminate and chronic symptomatic Chagas disease. See Appendix 2 for more information related to chronic Chagas disease .

Epidemiologic Linkage

Gestational parent that delivered a fetus or infant with confirmed congenital T. cruzi infection.

Case Classification

Suspect

Meets only one chronic Chagas disease presumptive laboratory evidence criterion.^‡

Probable

Meets all chronic Chagas disease presumptive laboratory evidence criteria,^‡

Meets one chronic Chagas disease presumptive laboratory evidence criterion AND chronic Chagas disease epidemiologic linkage criterion.^‡

Confirmed

Meets chronic Chagas disease confirmatory laboratory evidence.^‡