#defeatchagas

14 April is World Chagas Disease Day and this year the focus is on increasing awareness of Chagas disease, and on providing access to crucial care and implementing disease surveillance, at the primary  health care level.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), an estimated 6-7 million people worldwide are infected with Trypanosoma cruzi, the parasite that causes Chagas disease, leading to some 12,000 deaths every year and leaving some 75 million people at risk of infection. Annual incidence is 30-40,000 cases, but in many countries, detection rates are low (less than 10% and often less than 1%) and people suffering with the disease often encounter significant barriers to diagnosis and adequate healthcare.

Chagas disease is often called a "silent disease" because most patients have no symptoms either during the acute or the chronic phases of infection, until when damages are too advanced to be reversed. It remains a public health problem, especially in several endemic areas of continental Latin America, where the burden on health systems is high. The disease is curable when treatment is provided soon after infection, and detection and monitoring of the disease can be carried out at the first level of medical care. The decentralization of diagnostic and care services and making these part of mainstream national health systems, can therefore play a crucial role in ensuring effective case detection, notification, and management.

Speaking ahead of World Chagas Day, the Director of WHO’s Global NTD Programme, Dr Ibrahima Socé Fall said, “Chagas disease remains a blight on the lives of too many people, across Latin America and throughout the world. I join with my colleagues on the ground in calling for reinforced primary health care to better detect and diagnose cases and to ensure that more and more people are able to benefit from the treatments available to combat this debilitating disease”.