This morn­ing Médecins Sans Fron­tières reminds us of another dis­ease that strikes peo­ple in poverty called Cha­gas. The dis­ease is mostly con­cen­trated in Latin Amer­ica but there have been a few cases reported in other areas of the world. Cha­gas kills 14,000 peo­ple a year need­lessly, as there are drugs that were devel­oped a long time ago that can treat the disease.

From this MSF press release, we learn more back­ground infor­ma­tion about the dis­ease, and a call from MSF to more atten­tion to it’s eradication.

MSF calls on endemic coun­tries to end the neglect of Cha­gas suf­fer­ers and sup­port diag­no­sis and treat­ment for affected peo­ple, rather than focus­ing solely on vec­tor con­trol. Inte­grat­ing Cha­gas care into pri­mary health­care facil­i­ties would improve patient access to treat­ment. MSF also calls for fur­ther Research and Devel­op­ment (R&D) efforts into new drugs, rapid diag­no­sis tests to use in remote set­tings and bet­ter cure tests for one of the world’s most neglected dis­eases.

Cha­gas dis­ease is caused by the Try­panosoma cruzi par­a­site. In most Latin Amer­i­can coun­tries, the dis­ease is trans­mit­ted by the ‘kiss­ing bug’ vec­tor, although trans­mis­sion is also pos­si­ble from mother to child, through blood trans­fu­sions, organ trans­plants and con­t­a­m­i­nated food.

Cha­gas patients may be asymp­to­matic for years but dur­ing the chronic phase of the dis­ease one third develop seri­ous health prob­lems (mainly heart and intesti­nal com­pli­ca­tions) that can lead to death. “One of the main prob­lems we have is that for years patients have no symp­toms so they do not know they are sick and receive no treat­ment. Active case detec­tion is essen­tial to find and treat infected peo­ple,” explains Dr. Nines Lima, MSF Cha­gas officer.

About the treat­ment:
The sooner the dis­ease is detected, the more effec­tive the treat­ment. The only two exist­ing drugs – ben­znida­zol and nifur­timox – were devel­oped over 35 years ago through research not specif­i­cally focus­ing on Cha­gas. Although these med­i­cines are very effec­tive in new­born and breast­feed­ing chil­dren, only about 60 to 70 per cent of ado­les­cents and adults are suc­cess­fully treated. The older the patients are, the greater the like­li­hood they will expe­ri­ence side effects from the drugs. “Doc­tors do not treat chil­dren, let alone adults, for fear of side effects,” said Dr. Tom Ell­man, MSF Head of Mis­sion in Bolivia. “We are show­ing that these effects are man­age­able in both cases. Leav­ing patients untreated is no longer ethical.”

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