As equally alarming was the prevalence of the parasite found in blood held at the blood banks in various Latin American cities.  Multiple cities were tested and the range of infected blood samples ranged from as low as 1.3% to as shockingly high as 51.0% (Moncayo et al., 19).  Although the range was large, it still revealed that transmission of Chagas disease through blood transfusions was an extensive problem in addition to the traditional vector-borne transmissions.