Overcoming research barriers in Chagas disease—designing effective implementation science

Chagas disease remains a substantial source of morbidity and mortality in Latin America. The Pan American Health Organization estimates that 8 million people are infected in this part of the world ( Uruguay (2006). In the United States, which has high rates of Hispanic immigration, about 300,000 peo...

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Autores:
Henao Martínez, Andrés
Colborn, Kathryn
Parra Henao, Gabriel
Tipo de recurso:
Article of journal
Fecha de publicación:
2016
Institución:
Universidad Cooperativa de Colombia
Repositorio:
Repositorio UCC
Idioma:
OAI Identifier:
oai:repository.ucc.edu.co:20.500.12494/945
Acceso en línea:
https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12494/945
Palabra clave:
Chagas
Implementation science
Health policies
Rights
openAccess
License
Licencia CC
Description
Summary:Chagas disease remains a substantial source of morbidity and mortality in Latin America. The Pan American Health Organization estimates that 8 million people are infected in this part of the world ( Uruguay (2006). In the United States, which has high rates of Hispanic immigration, about 300,000 people are infected (Bern and Montgomery 2009; Kuehn 2015). Chagas transmission occurs mainly through contact with a triatomine or the Bkissing bug^ which carries the parasite, Trypanosoma cruzi. Transmission also occurs orally through food contamination with vector’s feces, vertically (perinatal), from organ donation and blood transfusion. Acute infections may be associated with fever or swelling around the site of the inoculation. Parasites can be detected in the blood for a few weeks following initial infection. If patients are not treated, they can develop severe medical complications, and this happens in about 20–30 % of those infected. These complications typically present as cardiac abnormalities and can lead to death (Morillo et al. 2015).