title: [The beginning of the disease].
abstract: Originating from the ancient enzootic cycle of Trypanosoma cruzi, human Chagas disease (HCD) emerged focally in different points of America, in the Pre Christian period. Being slowly expanded as a consequence of internal migrations, HCD was settled in those locals where some vector species reached domiciliation and where different kinds of reservoirs entered in domestic environment , with major expression in the post Columbus era, particularly between the final of XIX Century and the middle of XX Century, when the maximum prevalence rates were attained. Originally, scarce evidences of acute cases, chronic cardiopathy and megacolon could be detected in different points of the Region, but the diagnosis of such clinical pictures was not easily ascertained. Nevertheless, the megaoesophagus picture proved to be the more specific marker of ancient HCD, with several descriptions of its occurrence in different Brazilian regions, mainly since the XVIII Century. The social burden of HCD depends basically of the presence of chronic cardiopathy, and only after its recognition, control actions of the disease were definitely lounged in endemic countries.
authors.affiliation: Universidade Federal do Triângulo Mineiro, Uberaba, MG, Brazil.
authors.forename: Aluízio
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Prata
authors.forename: João Carlos Pinto
authors.initials: JC
authors.lastname: Dias
authors.forename: José Rodrigues
authors.initials: JR
authors.lastname: Coura
mesh_terms: D000569:Americas / Q000453:epidemiology; D000818:Animals; D014355:Chagas Disease / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000266:history*; D049669:History, 16th Century; D049670:History, 17th Century; D049671:History, 18th Century; D049672:History, 19th Century; D049673:History, 20th Century; D006801:Humans; D007303:Insect Vectors; D014225:Triatominae; D014349:Trypanosoma cruzi