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New York – Through its impact on worker productivity, premature disability, and death, Chagas disease (also called American trypanosomiasis) is the most important parasitic disease of the Americas. It is both a disease of poverty and, like other neglected tropical diseases, also “poverty promoting.” Chagas disease is often considered a “silent killer”, which is one of several reasons why it fails to attract media attention.

In this week’s PLoS Medicine, Rick Tarleton (Center for Tropical and Emerging Global Diseases and Department of Cellular Biology, University of Georgia, Athens, Georgia, USA) and colleagues discuss the many obstacles that the global health community faces in tackling Chagas disease.

“Current vector control methods and strategies have significant limitations, diagnostics are variable and of unknown reliability, drugs for treatment are inadequate, and vaccines are nonexistent,” say the authors. But there’s a glimmer of hope, they say. “There are numerous partial solutions already at hand that, if used in a coordinated manner, and with consideration of the unique characteristics of endemic areas (e.g., rural underdevelopment, poverty, lack of adequate housing, and increasingly decentralized health services), could have a significant impact.”