SOUTH AMERICAN TRYPANOSOMIASIS OF THE MENINGOENCEPHALOMYELITIC TYPE IN NEW YORK

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Abstract
Trypanosomiasis is a term used to designate the invasion of man and other animals by flagellate parasites of the genusTrypanosoma. Two distinct forms are known in man, the African and the South American. South American trypanosomiasis, called Chagas' disease, is due toT. cruzi, man becoming infected by the bite ofLamas megistus, also known asConorhinus megistus. The flagellates are found in the peripheral blood for only a comparatively short time after infection (two weeks in many cases). Then they pass into the internal organs and assume a leishmanial form, such forms producing pathologic lesions in the organs infested. The carrier ofT. cruziin Venezuela isRodinus prolixus. When the disease attacks the nervous system, widespread spastic phenomena, diplegia, athetosis, flexure contractions and dementia are common, owing to the occurrence of the parasites in multiple foci throughout the brain. In the early stages the diagnosis can be made

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