American trypanosomiasis, or Chagas disease, is a protozoan zoonotic disease caused by the haemoflagellate Trypanosoma cruzi, and is transmitted to humans either by blood-sucking triatomine vectors, blood transfusion or congenital transmission. This parasite infects over 150 species from 24 families of domestic and wild mammals, as well as humans. In the vertebrate host, T. cruzi infects many different cells, but in the human host, the disease is conspicuously limited to the myocardium and to gut nerve fibers. Myocardial damage, as it develops during various phases of the Chagas’ disease, is illustrated in the adjacent figure.
 

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