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Brazil Acai can "cause" Chagas disease

alert

Senior Moderator
http://eptv.globo.com/emissoras/emissoras_interna.aspx?278260



Acai can "cause" Chagas disease
Analysis points to the consumption of fruit contaminated during processing
23/11/2009 - 10:45

This year alone there have been, in Para, 180 cases of Chagas disease. It seems that this outbreak is related to consumption of contaminated açaí that is produced and distributed within the metropolitan area of the capital. The prosecution follows the laboratory to make the diagnosis.

Apparently the lack of hygiene is the cause of this public health problem in the region. In other words: Chagas' disease attacks the digestive tract and can cause inflammation in the heart and brain. In general, the barber infected by parasites transmitted disease through feces.

In the case of açaí, she takes orally. According to the Instituto Evandro Chagas, Pará, the insect is crushed along with acai on machines that separate the pulp from the seed. And the person ends up eating the contaminated fruit. Detail: freeze the pulp does not eliminate the parasite, says the State Department of Health This risk is not eliminated by pasteurization, says the institute.

Interesting. Chagas had previously been associated with contaminated cane juice, now acai juice. This really highlights the general risk from consumption of raw juice, especially if it is processed in a careless manner.

http://hisz.rsoe.hu/alertmap/woalert_read.php?glide=EH-20100112-24520-BRA&cat=dis&lang=eng

Posted by Tonka:
A Brazilian town has an outbreak of Chagas disease, the government of the northern province of Amazonas said Monday. Twelve people, including four children, were infected in the municipality of Santa Isabel do Rio Negro after eating "acai" – a kind of food produced from palm tree, said Evandro Melo, a provincial official. Melo said the cases were diagnosed on Jan. 4. Chagas disease is a tropical parasitic condition transmitted by blood-sucking assassin bugs. In 2007, Amazonas province also had reported an outbreak of Chagas disease because of acai, registering 46 cases without deaths.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Re: Brazil Acai can "cause" Chagas disease

"Chagas disease (American trypanosomiasis) chronically infects ≈10 million persons in Latin America. The etiologic agent is Trypanosoma cruzi, which is transmitted by bloodsucking triatomine insects. Other modes of transmission are transfusional, congenital, and oral (foodborne). Oral transmission occurs by consumption of foods contaminated with triatomines or their feces or by consumption of raw meat from infected mammalian sylvatic hosts. The precise stage of food handling at which contamination occurs is unknown. The first outbreak of orally transmitted Chagas disease in Brazil was reported in 1965. Two outbreaks were associated with consumption of sugar cane juice. In these outbreaks, the incubation period was ≈22 days, compared with 4?15 days for vectorial transmission and 30?40 days for transfusional transmission."
http://www.cdc.gov/eid/content/15/4/653.htm#con
 
Re: Brazil Acai can "cause" Chagas disease

I understand what happens here in remote areas - people take acai berries that have been contaminated with either that insect, insect parts, or insect feces, and consume them or the juice made from them, resulting in acute outbreaks.

My question is this: While acai berries are native only to certainly parts of the world, acai juice is shipped worldwide. Minute Maid makes a pomegranate acai juice that is sold in supermarkets all across North America, and Yoplait makes acai flavored yogurt. Is there any risk of a global outbreak of this disease due to this kind of distribution? Or are these products pasteurized first? And would that even help?
 
Re: Brazil Acai can "cause" Chagas disease

I wonder about the antioxidant capsules that are sold, also. One site I found said that freeze-drying does not kill the parasite, but pasteurizing does. They are also selling acai as a dietary supplement for weight loss, which has not been proven.
 
Re: Brazil Acai can "cause" Chagas disease

That parasite is notoriously difficult to kill. And if there were to be a large outbreak in the US due to such products, I doubt few doctors would even suspect this disease. And the symptoms can be quite bizarre too.

And with all the products recalled in the US lately due to other contaminants (salmonella, listeria, E. coli, etc.), it is clear that many companies have cut back on sanitation to save money during the economic downturn. This one might be a time bomb waiting to explode.
 
Re: Brazil Acai can "cause" Chagas disease

http://promedmail.org/pls/otn/f?p=2..._BACK_PAGE,F2400_P1001_PUB_MAIL_ID:1060,86680

Chagas disease, Acute oral, A?A? - Brazil (Amazon)
************************************************** ****
A statement by ProMED-mail
<http://www.promedmail.org>
ProMED-mail is a program
International Society for Infectious Diseases
<http://www.isid.org>

Date: January 15, 2011
Source: SRZD <http://www.sidneyrezende.com/noticia/117110+registrado+surto+de+doenca+de+ch>
[Edited by J. Torres]

Recorded outbreak of Chagas disease in the city of Amazonas


An outbreak of Chagas disease was confirmed by the Secretary
State Health in the Amazon city of Carauari. The consumption of acai
pollution
was mentioned by the Foundation for Monitoring
Health (SVM) as the probable cause of the disease transmission.

According to Secretary Wilson Romero, patients with the disease
acute. Twelve people affected live in a settlement of the Institute
National Colonization and Agrarian Reform (INCRA), located in
Riozinho Road, the rural area.

The group would have consumed acai in a family event. The family said
that pieces of a?a? not washed before they were crushed
with bare hands and the water used for dilution was
collected directly from rain.


Reported by: Jaime R. Torres <torresjaime@cantv.net>

- ProMED-ESP
 
Re: Brazil Acai can "cause" Chagas disease

http://promedmail.org/pls/apex/f?p=..._BACK_PAGE,F2400_P1001_PUB_MAIL_ID:1000,90825

Archive Number 20111025.3174
Published Date 25-OCT-2011
Subject PRO/AH> Trypanosomiasis (Chagas disease) - USA (03): (TX) comment

TRYPANOSOMIASIS (CHAGAS DISEASE) - USA (03): (TEXAS) COMMENT
************************************************************
A ProMED-mail post
<http://www.promedmail.org>
ProMED-mail is a program of the
International Society for Infectious Diseases
<http://www.isid.org>

Date: Tue 25 Oct 2011
From: Marc Desquesnes <marc.desquesnes@cirad.fr> [edited]


[Re: Trypanosomiasis (Chagas disease) - USA (02): (TX) comment
20111024.3167]
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Referring to the interesting message by Susan Rektorik Henley
(stressing that in Texas, people who camp out or have "fishing camp"
structures along the rivers and the poor who live in substandard
housing may be exposed to triatomine bugs), I wish to complete this
information, by stressing the possible oral infection of humans when
eating or drinking food contaminated by infected bug feces
(infective
metacyclic trypomastigotes).

So, even in the absence of direct contact between humans and bugs,
human infection may occur as a foodborne disease. This way of
infection has been observed several times especially with fruit juices
(Venezuela and Brazil), but could occur in various circumstances,
possibly as well in Texas
. Again, Chagas disease may not be detected
early but it may also never be detected late...

Additional information is available from
Pereira KS, Schmidt FL, Guaraldo AM, et al: Chagas' Disease as a
Foodborne Illness. J Food Prot. 2009; 72(2): 441-6.
<http://www.cbpv.com.br/artigos/1234801245.pdf>

--
Marc Desquesnes DVM, PhD parasitology, HRD
Expert for the OIE/WAHO reference laboratory on African
trypanosomoses
Expert for the Thailand International Cooperation Agency (TICA)
on mammal trypanosomes in Thailand
Member of the /ad hoc /group of WAHO on diagnosis of trypanosomoses
UMR177-Intertryp
Cirad-Bios
Department of Parasitology
Faculty of Veterinary Medicine
Kasetsart University
Chatuchak
10900 Bangkok
Thailand
<marc.desquesnes@cirad.fr>

[ProMED-mail thanks Marc Desquesnes for his comment and the reference
to the review on the subject. Foodborne Chagas is probably much more
common in endemic countries than previously thought. ProMED has
covered the last years' foodborne outbreaks in Brazil and Venezuela
(see below). - Mod.EP]

[see also:
Trypanosomiasis (Chagas disease) - USA (02): (TX) comment:
20111024.3167
Trypanosomiasis (Chagas disease) - USA: (TX) triatomine vector
20111022.3146
2010
----
Trypanosomiasis, triatomine vector - USA: (AZ): 20100215.0533
2009
----
Trypanosomiasis, foodborne - Venezuela: (Vargas), guava juice
20090406.1328
Undiagnosed fatalities - Venezuela (02): (Vargas) Chagas susp, RFI
20090404.1305
Undiagnosed fatalities - Venezuela: (Vargas), Chagas, susp, RFI
20090402.1279
Trypanosomiasis - Colombia: (SAN), foodborne susp. 20090121.0259
2007
----
Trypanosomiasis, foodborne - Venezuela: (Caracas) (02) 20071231.4192
Trypanosomiasis, foodborne - Brazil (Amazonia) 20070821.2732
Trypanosomiasis, autochthonous - USA (LA) 20070314.0900
Trypanosomiasis, Chagas disease, blood donor screening - USA
20070223.0669
2006
----
Trypanosomiasis, foodborne - Brazil (PA) 20060728.2085
2005
----
Trypanosomiasis, foodborne - Brazil (Santa Catarina) (05) 20050401]
 
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