Summary
The authors report the first known autochthonous case of Chagas disease in Western Amazonia. The patient, a four year old girl from the village of Boa Esperança in São Paulo de Olivença county, had never lived in nor visited any other locality. In October of 1979, in the course of their study of Plasmodium in that area, the lab technicians of SUCAM came across a slide presenting numerous flagellated forms which were subsequently identified by the authors as T. cruzi. The T. cruzi infection was confirmed by two xenodiagnoses using 4th and 5th stage R. prolixus Nymphs.