Acute Chagas Disease Manifesting as Orbital Cellulitis, Texas, USA

Abstract

We report a case of acute, vectorborne Chagas disease, acquired locally in central Texas, USA, manifesting as Romaña’s sign, which was initially mistaken for orbital cellulitis. After the infection failed to respond to antibiotics, DNA-based next generation sequencing on plasma yielded high levels of Trypanasoma cruzi; results were confirmed by PCR.

Keywords

• acute Chagas disease
• triatomine
• orbital cellulitis
• next-generation sequencing
• vector-borne infections
• Trypanosoma cruzi