The future of Chagas disease control

In the past 15 years, there have been major advances in the control of Chagas disease in most of the countries endemic for this infection. Attention now turns to the future continuity of surveillance and control interventions – especially in regions where control has been so successful that the epid...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Trends in parasitology 2006-12, Vol.22 (12), p.583-588
Main Authors: Schofield, Chris J., Jannin, Jean, Salvatella, Roberto
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adolescent
Animals
Biological and medical sciences
Chagas Disease - parasitology
Chagas Disease - prevention & control
Chagas Disease - transmission
Child
Disease Transmission, Infectious - prevention & control
Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology
Humans
Insect Vectors - parasitology
Latin America
Medically important nuisances and vectors, pests of stored products and materials: population survey and control
Triatominae - parasitology
Trypanosoma cruzi - growth & development
Vectors. Intermediate hosts
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Summary:In the past 15 years, there have been major advances in the control of Chagas disease in most of the countries endemic for this infection. Attention now turns to the future continuity of surveillance and control interventions – especially in regions where control has been so successful that the epidemiological significance of Chagas disease is in steep decline. The effort and expenditure of the recent past cannot continue indefinitely, but a degree of surveillance and selective intervention will be required because of the risk of new infestations and infections resulting from adventitious silvatic vectors accidentally entering houses. In this review, we summarize the progress of multinational control initiatives against Chagas disease. In addition, we suggest that the most sustainable approach to future surveillance involves both the primary healthcare system and university-based teams, with progressively greater attention given to case detection and treatment. Such an idea is not new, but we believe that it merits extensive discussion because of the different ways that research and health interventions are financed and because of the need to establish clearer reporting links between the research communities and the national health authorities.
ISSN:1471-4922
1471-5007
DOI:10.1016/j.pt.2006.09.011