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 …