World Chagas Disease Day: finding and reporting every case

Today is World Chagas Disease Day. This year’s theme is Finding and reporting every case to defeat Chagas disease. Despite progress, the global case detection rate for Chagas disease is low (estimated to be around 10%), posing a substantial barrier to accessing treatment and care and in preventing transmission. Often termed as a “silent and silenced disease”, many people with Trypanosoma cruzi infection (the parasite that causes the disease) develop no symptoms or unspecific mild symptoms. Moreover, many countries with cases lack systems to track the number of affected people and active transmission routes.