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Chagas disease, acute
2025 Case Definition

Chagas disease, acute
2025 Case Definition
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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, chronic
  • Chagas disease, congenital

Laboratory Criteria

Confirmatory Laboratory Evidence:*, **

  • Visualization of T. cruzi by microscopy (e.g. wet mount-microscopic examination, thick and thin smears-Giemsa stain) performed on any tissue or body fluid

OR

  • Detection of T. cruzi DNA by molecular testing (e.g. NAAT, metagenomic sequencing) performed on any tissue or body fluid.

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.

* Individuals experiencing reactivation may test positive using molecular testing or microscopic observation. These individuals can be counted as a chronic case pending positive serology that meets the chronic case definition. In the context of transplant recipients, case classification should be informed by whether the positive result may reflect an acute, donor-derived infection or chronic infection in a case experiencing reactivation.

** See Appendix 1 for more information related to signs and syndromes of acute and congenital Chagas disease Add PDF File Link.

Epidemiologic Linkage

  • Suspected triatomine or kissing bug exposure (e.g., bite, triatomine found in bed, etc.) within the 3 months prior to specimen collection,
    OR
  • Residence for at least 6 months in a Chagas endemic country¥, which concluded within the 3 months prior to specimen collection,
    OR
  • History of donor-derived infection in the recipient of organ or HCT/P transplant within the 3 months prior to specimen collection,
    OR
  • History of donor-derived infection in the recipient of a blood transfusion within the 3 months prior to specimen collection.

¥ Argentina, Belize, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, El Salvador, French Guiana, Guatemala, Guyana, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Suriname, Uruguay, and Venezuela.

Case Classification

Confirmed

  • Meets acute Chagas disease confirmatory laboratory evidence AND acute Chagas disease epidemiologic linkage criteria.**

** See Appendix 1 for more information related to signs and syndromes of acute and congenital Chagas disease Add PDF File Link.

Related Case Definition(s)

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Last Reviewed: November 5, 2024
Source: Office of Public Health Data, Surveillance, and Technology