Published 13 July 2009, doi:10.1136/bmj.b2859
Cite this as: BMJ 2009;339:b2859

News

Médecins Sans Frontières campaigns to increase treatment of Chagas disease

Peter Moszynski

1 London

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

The charity Médecins Sans Frontières last week launched an international campaign to raise awareness of the parasitic Chagas disease, to encourage patients to seek help and doctors to treat the disease in both its acute and chronic stages.

Because the disease has previously been considered incurable, many patients who realise they are infected do not seek help, the charity says. And many other patients don’t know they have the disease.

Gemma Ortiz, head of the charity’s Chagas campaign, said, "Patients aren’t presenting, doctors aren’t prescribing, so manufacturers don’t know how many drugs to produce. Now, knowing that the majority of those infected by the parasite [that causes it] can be treated, this is no longer acceptable."

About 10-15 million people in Latin America become infected with the disease each year. It is estimated that 14 000 people die of the disease annually, though the number could be much higher.

Chagas . . . [Full text of this article]


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