Skip to main content
PMC home page
Bulletin of the World Health Organization logoLink to Bulletin of the World Health Organization
. 1995;73(4):487–494.

Detecting domestic vectors of Chagas disease: a comparative trial of six methods in north-west Argentina.

R E Gürtler 1, R Chuit 1, M C Cecere 1, M B Castañera 1
PMCID: PMC2486773  PMID: 7554021

Abstract

Six methods for detecting domestic infestations by triatomine bugs were compared in the rural community of Amamá, north-west Argentina. An average of three pairs (range, 2-5 pairs) of sensor boxes and sheets of pink typing-paper were tacked to the walls of human sleeping areas in 45 houses for 30 days and then inspected by a two-man team. Triatoma infestans bugs were collected in bedrooms by a different two-man team aided by a flushing-out agent both before and after application of sensing devices. Finally, knockdown collections of bugs after application of one insecticide fumigant canister per bedroom were also made. The proportion of houses with evidence of current domestic bug infestations that were detected by the various methods were as follows: sensor boxes (95.3%), reports of householders (88.4%), knockdown (87.8%), paper-sheets (86.0%), and flushing-out (69.8-76.7%). The detectability of infestations, irrespective of the method used, increased with the density of the bugs. At low or intermediate bug densities, individual sensor boxes were more sensitive than their matched paper-sheets, but at any bug density there were no significant differences between the pooled results for all the boxes and for all the paper-sheets in the house. On average, each sensor box recorded 2.25 times more triatomine faecal smears than its matched paper-sheet, and this relation increased with the density of bugs in the house. Both sensing devices were effective at monitoring unsuccessful attempts of peridomestic triatomine populations to colonize houses.

Full text

PDF
487

Selected References

These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.

  1. Chuit R., Paulone I., Wisnivesky-Colli C., Bo R., Perez A. C., Sosa-Stani S., Segura E. L. Result of a first step toward community-based surveillance of transmission of Chagas' disease with appropriate technology in rural areas. Am J Trop Med Hyg. 1992 Apr;46(4):444–450. doi: 10.4269/ajtmh.1992.46.444. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  2. Garcia Zapata M. T., Schofield C. J., Marsden P. D. A simple method to detect the presence of live triatomine bugs in houses sprayed with residual insecticides. Trans R Soc Trop Med Hyg. 1985;79(4):558–559. doi: 10.1016/0035-9203(85)90094-x. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  3. García-Zapata M. T., Marsden P. D., das Virgens D., Soares V. A. Epidemiological vigilance with community participation in the control of the vectors of Chagas' disease in Goias, Central Brazil. Rev Argent Microbiol. 1988;20(1 Suppl):106–117. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  4. Gürtler R. E., Petersen R. M., Cecere M. C., Schweigmann N. J., Chuit R., Gualtieri J. M., Wisnivesky-Colli C. Chagas disease in north-west Argentina: risk of domestic reinfestation by Triatoma infestans after a single community-wide application of deltamethrin. Trans R Soc Trop Med Hyg. 1994 Jan-Feb;88(1):27–30. doi: 10.1016/0035-9203(94)90483-9. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  5. Gürtler R. E., Schweigmann N. J., Cecere M. C., Chuit R., Wisnivesky-Colli C. Comparison of two sampling methods for domestic populations of Triatoma infestans in north-west Argentina. Med Vet Entomol. 1993 Jul;7(3):238–242. doi: 10.1111/j.1365-2915.1993.tb00683.x. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  6. Marsden P. D., Penna R. A 'vigilance unit' for households subject to triatomine control. Trans R Soc Trop Med Hyg. 1982;76(6):790–792. doi: 10.1016/0035-9203(82)90109-2. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  7. Pinchin R., Fanara D. M., Castleton C. W., Oliveira Filho A. M. Comparison of techniques for detection of domestic infestations with Triatoma infestans in Brazil. Trans R Soc Trop Med Hyg. 1981;75(5):691–694. doi: 10.1016/0035-9203(81)90150-4. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  8. Schofield C. J. A comparison of sampling techniques for domestic populations of Triatominae. Trans R Soc Trop Med Hyg. 1978;72(5):449–455. doi: 10.1016/0035-9203(78)90160-8. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  9. Wisnivesky-Colli C., Paulone I., Chuit R., Perez A., Segura E. L. A new method for the detection of reinfested households during surveillance activities of control programmes of Chagas' disease. Rev Argent Microbiol. 1988;20(1 Suppl):96–102. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]

Articles from Bulletin of the World Health Organization are provided here courtesy of World Health Organization

RESOURCES