Chagas Initiative

At the global level, 2019 was an important year for Chagas disease: the World Health Organisation officially declared 14 April to be World Chagas Disease Day, as a result of a FINDECHAGAS campaign in which we actively participated. Although symbolic, this recognition will give greater visibility to a major global health problem.

At the regional level, we contributed to the ECDC guidelines on screening and vaccination for infectious diseases in newly arrived migrants within Europe. In Bolivia, the extension of our Chagas platform model across the primary health system has increased access to disease diagnosis and treatment tenfold. In addition, we developed and tested a tool (Xtrategy software) that will allow governments to engage with relevant stakeholders and make more efficient decisions to strengthen health systems.