• José A Pérez-Molina and Israel Molina.
• National Referral Centre for Tropical Diseases, Infectious Diseases Department, Hospital Universitario Ramón y Cajal, Insituto Ramón y Cajal de Investgación Sanitaria, Madrid, Spain. Electronic address: jperezm@salud.madrid.org.
• Lancet. 2018 Jan 6; 391 (10115): 82-94.

AbstractChagas disease is an anthropozoonosis from the American continent that has spread from its original boundaries through migration. It is caused by the protozoan Trypanosoma cruzi, which was identified in the first decade of the 20th century. Once acute infection resolves, patients can develop chronic disease, which in up to 30-40% of cases is characterised by cardiomyopathy, arrhythmias, megaviscera, and, more rarely, polyneuropathy and stroke. Even after more than a century, many challenges remain unresolved, since epidemiological control and diagnostic, therapeutic, and prognostic methods must be improved. In particular, the efficacy and tolerability profile of therapeutic agents is far from ideal. Furthermore, the population affected is older and more complex (eg, immunosuppressed patients and patients with cancer). Nevertheless, in recent years, our knowledge of Chagas disease has expanded, and the international networking needed to change the course of this deadly disease during the 21st century has begun.Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

5 keywords...

hide…