INTERESTING TIMES

NCNM clinic lab can get the serum IFA test for Trypanosoma Cruzi Antibodies from Quest for $247.00, tests for both IgM and IgG. I'd like to find out more about inexpensive salivary tests. According to my reading, one must run two different assays for antibodies, as the different strains of the disease express differently, but Quest doesn't seem to recognize this. If the two tests contradict each other, there is a tiebreaker third to order. Not sure where to order all these, have read parts from the links behind the cut.
( links )

New science indicates that Chagas infection in humans is at least 4500 years old if not 9000, and that infection occurred before domicilization of triatomine insects. Two types of T. cruzi display distinct characteristics and may one type appears to be transmitted orally, resulting in severe disease in children.
( notes from a letter to the editor by several Brazilian docs of the Oswaldo Cruz Foundation in Rio de Janeiro )