Chagas Disease

"Fighting Neglect" charts MSF's 25 years of experience in diagnosing and treating Chagas disease, sleeping sickness, and kala azar in Latin America, Sub-Saharan Africa, South Asia, and the Caucasus.

MSF is treating migrants in Italy for neglected diseases like tuberculosis and Chagas.

Despite recent advances, there's still a need to make noise about "the silent disease."

In this op-ed Dr. Unni Karunakara, international president of MSF, calls for increased commitment to the elimination of neglected diseases.

MSF has released a list of important stories that had an impact on people’s ability to access needed drugs, diagnostics, and vaccines in developing countries in 2011.

Through its Access Campaign, MSF has been closely following the developments in the world of access to medicines, vaccines, and diagnostics.

Thousands of people with Chagas disease will go untreated in coming months due to a shortage of benznidazole, the first-line drug used in most endemic countries.

This crisis could have been prevented but the major player involved, the Brazilian Ministry of Health, has shirked its responsibilities and is evidently unwilling to overcome the various challenges. 

Chagas disease, or American trypanosomiasis, is a parasitic disease caused by Trypanosoma cruzi (T. cruzi) and is transmitted mainly by insects called triatomines, also known as ‘assassin bugs’ or ‘kissing bugs’. It is endemic in 21 Latin American countries and cases have also been reported in the U.S., Europe, and Japan.

Recently, Chagas projects have seen their treatment capacities limited due to a shortage in benznidazole, a first-line drug manufactured by only one laboratory in Brazil. 

Founded in 2003, the Drugs for Neglected Diseases initiative (DNDi) brings together the academic, medical, public health, and pharmaceutical worlds to create effective drugs to treat neglected diseases like Chagas disease, sleeping sickness, and visceral leishmaniasis.

In addition to integrating diagnosis and treatment pf Chagas disease in health centers, MSF visits remote communities and schools assisting the populations unable to reach the clinics.

Geneva, May 17, 2010 – A World Health Assembly (WHA) resolution on Chagas disease control and elimination, to be adopted this week, is a step in the right direction but does not go far enough to fully tackle the disease since it focuses only on prevention, the international medial humanitarian organization Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) and the Drugs for Neglected Disease initiative(DNDi) said today.

MSF has integrated Chagas screening and treatment into the primary healthcare services offered by its mobile clinics in Colombia's Arauca region.

By Dr. Unni Karunakara, incoming president of MSF's International Council, and Dr. Bernard Pecoul, executive director of the Drugs for Neglected Diseases initiative

Over one billion people are infected with one or more of the 14  diseases defined by the World Health Organization (WHO) as  neglected tropical diseases (NTDs).

More than 400 million people are at risk for the neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) visceral leishmaniasis (kala azar), sleeping sickness, Chagas disease, and Buruli ulcer.

As 2009 comes to a close, we bring you some of the most striking photos from some of the most urgent crises MSF responded to over the last 12 months.

Few diseases with symptoms like heart enlargement and failure, antiquated medicine and over 300,000 current reported U.S. cases would receive almost no attention, but such is the case for Chagas disease. Until now, that is.

In October 2009, MSF and the Drugs for Neglected Diseases initiative (DNDi) hosted a symposium at UCLA in Los Angeles to raise awareness about Chagas disease in the US and Latin America, discuss the challenges of increasing diagnosis, treatment, and R&D, and produce calls for action.

"There are 10 to 15 million who have Chagas," said Gemma Ortiz, who heads the Chagas campaign for Doctors Without Borders. This year, the organization vows to "break the silence" of Chagas disease, which kills nearly 14,000 each year.

Primarily affecting poor people throughout Central and South America, an estimated 14 million people have Chagas disease, and about 15,000 die from it every year.

Madrid, July 9, 2009 — The international medical humanitarian organization Doctors Without Borders/Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) today launched a campaign to raise awareness of the parasitic disease Chagas. MSF is calling on countries where the disease is endemic to stop neglecting the disease by moving beyond prevention activities to increased diagnosis and treatment.

Millions of people are infected with Chagas disease yet they do not know. They can die in silence, without asking for help, without knowing why. It's time to act: diagnose and treat now!

CNN's Vital Signs visits with an MSF team in Bolivia on the trail of this neglected killer disease.

Barcelona/Geneva, New York, May, 19, 2009 – The World Health Organization (WHO) has cut short its annual health ministers meeting because of influenza A (H1N1) preparations and has postponed discussions about Chagas disease. Much needed progress in diagnosing and treating people for this neglected disease must not be further delayed, warned the international medical humanitarian organization Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) today.

Geneva/New York, February 23, 2009 — MSF and the Drugs for Neglected Diseases initiative (DNDi) called today for more sustainable funding for research and development (R&D) to tackle deadly, yet neglected diseases, such as sleeping sickness, visceral leishmaniasis, and Chagas disease, that affect millions of people around the world.

MSF welcomes recognition by UK drugs company GlaxoSmithKline that patents act as a barrier to research and development and that patent pools offer new ways to stimulate research into neglected diseases. Promises now need to be turned into action.

Rio de Janeiro, April 17, 2008 – Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) welcomes the launch in Brazil of a new drug against P. Falciparum, the most dangerous type of malaria. Developed by DNDi (Drugs for Neglected Diseases Initiative) in partnership with Farmanguinhos/Fiocruz, ASMQ is the first drug against malaria that combines artesunate (AS) and mefloquine (MQ) in one fixed dose. ASMQ is an important additional tool for better treatment for a disease that continues to kill over one million people each year globally, and kills a child every 30 seconds.

New York, NY, October 31, 2007 - In a study published today in the inaugural issue of PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases, Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) medical teams detail a dramatic increase in visceral leishmaniasis, also known as kala azar, in the Bakool region of south-central Somalia. The current conflict in Somalia and the lack of health infrastructure makes it both difficult to address the problem and to assess the true magnitude of the impact of the disease.

With the Nigerian government filing a lawsuit against the U.S. drug company, Pfizer, for clinical trials it conducted during the 1996 meningitis epidemic in Nigeria, Dr. Jean-Hervé Bradol, president of the French section of Médecins Sans Frontières, reviews MSF’s work in Nigeria that year. He emphasizes the need for more clinical research that addresses the lack of treatment options for people in Africa.

In late December 2006, after four years of treating people living with HIV/AIDS in Coatepec, MSF transferred that responsibility to the country's public health agencies. Preparation for the handover had been underway for more than a year. The transfer was implemented gradually, concluding only when the agencies taking responsibility were ready to ensure continuity of care. MSF continues to provide treatment to people living with HIV/AIDS in Puerto Barrios and Guatemala City.

Geneva/Mexico City, November 16, 2004 - The current system for health research and development is failing to bring the benefits of medical progress to the poor, according to the medical humanitarian organization Doctors Without Borders/Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) on the opening day of the Ministerial Summit on Health Research, "Bridging the Know-Do Divide to Achieve the Millennium Development Goals," in Mexico City.

On CAFTA and access to medicines

by Patrice Trouiller, Piero Olliaro, Els Torreele, James Orbinski, Richard Laing, and Nathan Ford