The Politics of (Non)endemicity: Chagas Disease in the United States

ABSTRACT

Chagas disease (CD) is a vector-borne parasitic disease endemic to Latin America. The US has established populations of vectors, parasites, and animal hosts, but because of the low frequency of locally acquired human infections CD is not classified as endemic there. I present a narrative review of the literature of autochthonous cases of CD in the US and analyze it with a co-productionist framework focused on material politics. I underscore the need for an ethnographic approach to the category of endemicity as not only an issue of knowledge and evidence but also as a practiced condition infused with power.

RESUMEN

La enfermedad de Chagas (EC) es una enfermedad parasitaria transmitida por vectores endémica de Latinoamérica. Estados Unidos tiene poblaciones establecidas de vectores, parásitos y animales hospederos. Debido a la baja frecuencia de infecciones humanas adquiridas localmente, no es un país endémico. En este artículo presento una revisión narrativa de la literatura de casos autóctonos de EC en EEUU y la analizo con un marco co-produccionista centrado en política material. Subrayo la necesidad de un enfoque etnográfico que estudie la categoría de endemicidad no solo como una cuestión de conocimiento y evidencia, sino también como una práctica política en sí misma.

KEYWORDS:

• United States
• autochthonous cases
• Chagas disease
• co-production
• endemicity
• material politics

PALABRAS CLAVE:

• Estados Unidos
• enfermedad de Chagas
• casos autóctonos
• política material
• endemicidad
• co-producción

Acknowledgments

Special thanks to Dr. Marina Gold, for her careful review of this work and her insightful suggestions. Thanks as well to Dr. Rebecca Marsland, Dr. James Staples, and my faculty advisor at Berkeley, Dr. Charles L. Briggs, for their revision of previous versions of this article. I am deeply grateful to Dr. Alex Nading, my faculty advisor at the University of Edinburgh in 2017, for his guidance throughout this research project.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Consejo Nacional de Ciencia y Tecnología (CONACYT) under Grant 600468/438295; and by Chevening Scholarship Programme under Grant MXCV-2016-1242.

Notes on contributors

Bernardo Moreno Peniche

Bernardo Moreno Peniche is a PhD student in the joint medical anthropology program at the University of California (UC) Berkeley and UC San Francisco. He currently develops his doctoral project on autochthonous cases of Chagas disease in the United States. ORCiD:https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0155-7279