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Global Health Matters

September - October, 2008  |  Volume 7, Issue 5

Nets could help quash Chagas disease

Fogarty scientist Dr. Michael Levy puts bugs
in a cooler in Arequipa, Peru, to preserve
them for later lab examination in a project
to fight Chagas disease.

Fogarty researchers have found that insecticide-treated netting can dramatically slow the spread of bugs that carry Chagas disease, a chronic and potentially fatal infection that puts 25 percent of Latin Americans at risk.

It is the first time that netting has been shown to be effective against Chagas, say the authors of a study in the October issue of The American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene.

Lead author Dr. Michael Z. Levy, a Fogarty postdoctoral fellow, and senior scientist Dr. F. Ellis McKenzie, set up an experiment in a crowded neighborhood of Arequipa, Peru, in which the guinea pigs were guinea pigs.

The rodent is a staple of Peruvian food production and a common host for the parasite.

They determined that almost five times as many of the bloodsucking Chagas-carrying bugs Triatoma infestans were kept out of cages with insecticide-treated nets placed over them than in cages without nets, where the researchers placed bricks that attract the insects.

"Insecticide-treated nets have been shown to be effective in malaria control and potentially in the control of leishmaniasis," the authors said. "Now we know that they may also be a valuable tool in the control of Chagas disease."

Impregnated Netting Slows Infestation by Triatoma infestans. Michael Z. Levy, Victor R. Quispe-Machaca, Jose L. Ylla-Velasquez, Lance A. Waller, Jean M. Richards, Bruno Rath, Katty Borrini-Mayori, Juan G. Cornejo del Carpio, Eleazar Cordova-Benzaquen, F. Bern. Am J Trop Med Hyg. 2008; 79:528-534.