Chagas' Disease: Risk Factors for House Infestation by Triatoma dimidiata, the Major Vector of Trypanosoma cruzi in Costa Rica

The reduction of domiciliary infestation by insect vectors, the key to controlling Chagas' disease, depends on identification of housing features associated with infestation. In this study, log-linear modeling was used to reanalyze data collected in 1964–1968 from 371 houses on characteristics potentially associated with infestation by the vector Triatoma dimidiata in a Costa Rican town with endemic Chagas' disease. A possible increased risk of infestation was observed for houses with a dirt floor (as compared with houses with another floor type) and for houses in poor sanitary condition (as compared with houses in good sanitary condition). A new risk factor for house infestation, the presence of roof tiles, was identified; the odds of infestation for houses with a tile roof were 2.4 times greater than the odds for houses with a galvanized metal roof. This significantly increased risk is probably due to the harboring of T. dimidiata in stacks of spare tiles next to house walls rather than to the tile roofs themselves.