INVESTIGADORES
KREIMER pablo Rafael
congresos y reuniones científicas
Título:
“The Vinchuca Trail: From Rancho to Laboratory. Chagas-Related Social Problems and Knowledge Production in Molecular Biology”
Autor/es:
PABLO KREIMER; JUAN PABLO ZABALA
Lugar:
Paris
Reunión:
Congreso; 4S/EASST General Conference; 2004
Institución organizadora:
Ecole Nationale des Mines de Paris
Resumen:
This paper sets out to understand the complex set of relationships between the development of fields of scientific knowledge production and the emergence and persistence of social problems in a peripheral context. Our case study will be Chagas Disease, which is currently recognized as the number one endemic in Latin America (WHO, XXX) and affects around 18 million people from Mexico in the north to Patagonia in the south. It is caused by a parasite (Trypanosoma cruzi) that produces serious internal lesions and reduces the sufferer’s life expectancy. Chagas is essentially a disease of poverty and is mainly contracted through the vinchuca (a reduviid known variously as the barbeiro, chipo, conenose, kissing bug or assassin bug). Vinchucas nest in the adobe walls or straw roofs of ranchos (hut-like rural dwellings) and the population most affected lives in rural areas in the endemic zones.