European Health Policy Needs to Address Chagas Disease Prevention and Control

Experts from around the globe came together at the 10th edition of the Workshop on Chagas Disease, which is organised by the Barcelona Institute for Global Health (ISGlobal) in collaboration with Fundación Mundo Sano. The workshop was held at Casa del Mar in Barcelona and was inaugurated by Antoni Mateu, Public Health Secretary of the Government of Catalonia. During the event, more than 130 participants reviewed the latest advances in the treatment of Chagas disease and discussed the existing health policies.

Chagas disease is a public health problem in Europe, where an estimated  68,000 to 122,000 inhabitants are believed to be infected. There is, however, no European-wide legislation regulating the means by which the disease is spread in non-endemic countries. Only five countries (Spain, Italy, France, Switzerland, the UK, and Sweden) have laws that include measures to prevent the spread of the disease through blood donations, and while several countries have introduced programmes to regulate the donation of organs for transplantation, there are no specific European directives or national laws. Furthermore, only a few regions have developed programmes to prevent and treat the vertical transmission of the disease, that is, the transmission of the disease from a mother to her child.

"In Spain, for example, only three autonomous regions (Catalonia, Valencia and Andalusia) have launched screening and diagnosis programmes for pregnant women from countries with a high incidence of Chagas disease, and this is a basic measure for preventing congenital transmission", noted Dr. Joaquim Gascon, Director of the Chagas Initiative at ISGlobal and Head of the Tropical Medicine Department at Hospital Clínic in Barcelona. "Apart from the lack of European legislation, we are faced with additional challenges that are slowing the progress being made in the fight against Chagas disease". Dr. Gascon concluded by stating that Chagas disease is underdiagnosed in Europe because health practitioners do not have experience with its diagnosis or management.