Nuevas formulaciones de benzonidazol para el mal de chagas

SALOMON, C.J.

Conferencia; X CONGRESO DE PROTOZOOLOGIA Y ENFERMEDADES PARASITARIAS; 2014

Chagas? disease or American tripanosomiasis is a zoonosis discovered by Dr. Carlos Chagas, a Brazilian physician, who first identified the infection caused by Trypanosoma cruzi in 1909. His valuable study included description of the entire lifecycle of the parasite, vectors, and animals and humans that act as reservoir hosts. Although the vectorial transmission has been reduced, Chagas? disease is still amajor public health problem and one of the leading causes of morbidity, long-term disability, andmortality in Latin America, with estimates of nearly 90million people at risk of infection and more than eight million infected in 18 endemic countries. Furthermore, the number of yearly new cases due to vectorial transmission was around 42,000 people, and the infected neonates by congenital Chagas? disease per year were nearly 15,000. Additional to human morbidity and mortality, this parasitic infection places a substantial burden in poorer, developing countries, increasing both the poverty and vulnerability of those people. Chagas? disease is transmitted primarily by insects, known as ?kissing bugs,? through the bite wound or mucous membranes. Moreover, the dissemination of this parasitic infection may occur by transfusion of blood from persons infected with T. cruzi and/or organ transplantation. Also, infected pregnant women may transmit T. cruzi to her newborn, resulting in congenital Chagas? disease. A noncommon route of infection is through ingesting food and drink contaminated with the faeces of a triatomine carrying the parasite. Lately, and due to the great dissemination from endemic areas in Latin America to the United States, Canada, and several countries of the European Community, Chagas? disease has become a serious concern for the nonresident tropical population. Nearly 300,000 people live with Chagas? disease in the United States, and more than 80,000 cases are being reported in Spain. In North America, as recently stated, this parasitic infection is becoming a serious concern, which can have severe consequences for public health, principally because of its potential to contaminate the blood transfusion supply as well as its dissemination through surgical implantation of infected donor organs to patients in nonendemic areas.