In 1908, Dr. Carlos Ribeiro Justiniano Chagas was working on a malaria campaign during the construction of the Brazilian Central Railway in the village of Lassance, Minas Gerais state. There, different workers told him that during the night, in their homes, tiny insects came out of the cracks of the walls and ceilings that bit them and disappeared during the day. They called them barbeiros, perhaps because the most frequent bites were on their faces. Chagas examined the intestinal content of these barbeiros and observed tripanosome-like floggings described as causing sleep sickness, a tropical disease that is transmitted by the bite of a fly and which, if left untreated, can be fatal.
Chagas disease is a disease that affects the poorest population on the planet, precisely people who do not have easy access to medical care.
Months later, in April 1909, the doctor cared for a girl who had a fever and who had had increased the size of her liver and spleen. He had a blood test and encountered the same parasite he had observed in the intestinal content of the insects, already identified as triatomines. In 1909, Chagas announced his discovery in the Memoirs of the Oswaldo Cruz Institute, and the causal agent was named Schizotrypanum cruzi, after Oswaldo Cruz, a Brazilian physician, mentor and guide in his studies in tropical medicine. Thus, on April 14 of that year, Berenice Soares de Moura, 2, became the first patient to be diagnosed with the disease. More than 100 years later, in May 2019, at the 72nd World Health Assembly, Member States agreed to establish World Chagas Disease Day, which has since been celebrated every 14 April.What is the goal of World Chagas Day?
The proposal to create a World Day for Chagas Disease emerged from the International Federation of Associations of People Affected by Chagas Disease and was supported by various health institutions, universities, research centres, and other platforms. The goal is to give visibility to neglected tropical diseases and encourage states to control these types of forgotten diseases that mainly affect poor people.What is Chagas disease?
Chagas is a tropical disease that is borne by an insect, and that if not treated in its early stages can cause serious consequences on health and even death. It is a slow-developing disease and is therefore known as a silent disease, but also silenced, because it affects the poorest population on the planet, precisely people who do not have easy access to medical care. It affects between 6 and 7 million people worldwide, and not only spreads throughout Latin American countries, but more and more cases are taking place in the United States, Canada, Europe and some Pacific countries Occidental.La disease can also be transmitted by contaminated food, blood transfusions and organ transplants. How it can be prevented
Fumigation of houses, ranches and their surroundings with insecticides.
Improvement of homes and their cleanliness to prevent vector infestation.
Locate chicken coops, pens and animals away from homes (to avoid direct debit of vinchuca).
Personal preventive measures, such as the use of mosquito nets.
Good hygiene practices in the preparation, transport, storage and consumption of food.
Screening of donated blood.
Screening tests on organs, tissues or donated cells and their receptors.
Screening of newborns and other children of infected mothers, to diagnose and treat the problem early.
And, fundamentally, health education.
