TY - JOUR T1 - Chagas disease after organ transplantation--Los Angeles, California, 2006 JF - MMWR Morb Mortal Wkly Rep Y1 - 2006 KW - *Tissue Donors KW - Aged KW - Animals KW - Chagas Disease / *transmission KW - Fluorescent Antibody Technique KW - Heart Transplantation / *adverse effects KW - Humans KW - Los Angeles KW - Male KW - Middle Aged KW - Radioimmunoprecipitation Assay KW - Trypanosoma cruzi / *isolation & purification AB - Chagas disease is an infection caused by the parasite Trypanosoma cruzi. Reduviids (i.e., "kissing bugs") transmit the parasite through infected feces. T. cruzi also can be transmitted congenitally and through blood transfusion or organ transplantation. The infection is lifelong if left untreated; the majority of infected persons are asymptomatic, and their disease remains undiagnosed. Although routine serologic testing of organ and blood donors is performed in areas of Latin America where Chagas disease is endemic, no T. cruzi screening test is licensed in the United States. However, seroprevalence studies using research tests have documented the presence of T. cruzi antibodies in U.S. blood and organ donor populations. This report describes two cases of acute Chagas disease in heart transplant recipients reported by two Los Angeles County hospitals in February 2006. In the United States, one previous report documented T. cruzi transmission through solid organ transplantation, in which three organ recipients were infected. VL - 55 CP - 29 N1 - Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Case Reports United States MMWR. Morbidity and mortality weekly report MMWR Morb Mortal Wkly Rep. 2006 Jul 28;55(29):798-800. ID - 10 ER -