The WHO calls for a comprehensive, equitable approach to health care for every patient with Chagas disease

Today, on World Chagas Day, the World Health Organization (WHO) called for comprehensive and equal access to health care and services for all those affected by Chagas disease. It is estimated that 6 to 7 million people worldwide are infected Trypanosoma cruzi – a parasite that causes disease.

“It is sad to note that despite progress, millions of people remain undiagnosed, with limited or no access to health care. ” said Dr. Ren Minghui, Assistant Director General, Department of Universal Health Coverage / Infectious and Noncommunicable Diseases. “We need to improve detection and diagnosis rates, which are currently at unacceptably low levels¹ and we must provide everyone with equal access to treatment and health services. ”

Chagas disease remains a public health problem in several endemic areas of continental Latin America, where the burden on the health system is high. In recent decades, Chagas disease has been detected in several countries outside of Latin America, including the United States, Canada, and in many European and some African, eastern Mediterranean, and Western Pacific countries.

Chagas disease is curable if treatment is started soon after infection. If left undiagnosed and untreated in the chronic phase, Chagas disease can result in arrhythmias, enlarged cardiomyopathy, leading to sudden death or heart failure, with relatively frequent digestive clinical manifestations and thrombotic vascular accidents and neurological sequelae.

“The 2021-2030 NTD Roadmap envisages a number of objectives to accelerate progress in the prevention and control of Chagas disease, including the elimination of its congenital form and the provision of 75% antiparasitic treatment coverage to eligible populations everywhere”Said Dr. Mwelecele Ntuli Malecela, Director, Department for the Control of Neglected Tropical Diseases. “We are confident that this day will encourage activities that will help improve visibility and awareness of the disease. “

Silent and silent disease

Chagas disease is mostly asymptomatic, either in the acute phase after infection or in the persistent chronic phase, without successful antiparasitic treatment.

It can take decades before an infected person develops chronic clinical manifestations.

More than ever, with the current pandemic and the risk of serious clinical manifestations of COVID-19, the detection of people with Chagas disease must take precedence and allow them access to vaccination.

The potential of integrated interventions

Already integrated interventions with malaria and other hemoparasites, maternal and child health programs, HIV / AIDS and other infectious and non-infectious health programs improve implementation in a cost-effective way.

Monitoring and verification of achievements through the exchange of data and sources of information² they opened up opportunities for exchanging and making information available, monitoring progress and checking achievements. Better research and diagnostic tools can speed up patient screening (including blood transfusions, organ transplants, screening of girls and women of reproductive age, and pregnant women and their newborns and children).

In 2019, the 72nd World Health Assembly approved the proclamation of World Chagas Disease Day to raise public awareness and inform about what is often referred to as the “silent and silenced disease”.

Disease

Chagas disease, also known as American trypanosomiasis, is a potentially life-threatening disease caused by a protozoan parasite Trypanosoma cruzi (T. cruzi).

It is found mainly in endemic areas of 21 continental countries and regions of Latin America³

For centuries, the disease has been a strictly Latin American problem of the rural population, but the relocation of people from rural to urban areas and to other continents has broadened the range of disease transmission channels by vector pathways such as blood transfusions, congenital and oral transmissions, organ transplants and contaminated food.

There is no vaccine against Chagas disease. Domicile vector control and transfusion control, along with innate transmission, remain the most effective methods of preventing transmission in Latin America.

Chagas disease was named after Carlos Ribeiro Justinian Chagas, a Brazilian physician and researcher who discovered the disease in 1909.