Key Global Players in the Fight Against Chagas Disease to Meet in Cochabamba

The third week of April 2013 may be a turning point in the fight against Chagas disease. For the first time ever, leading global actors will come together in the Bolivian city of Cochabamba to unite forces in the fight against Chagas disease. The aim of the initiative, known as Chagas Week – Neglected Disease, is to provide a platform for discussing the challenges of Chagas disease and exploring possible solutions.

Chagas Week will feature three key events: the COHEMI Symposium on Neglected Diseases and Migration, the Chagas Disease Update Symposium and the Chagas Clinical Research Platform Meeting.
Cochabamba is a highly appropriate venue as it has one of the highest burdens of Chagas disease in the world and is also home to numerous organisations involved in the fight against this disease, including the centre conducting a phase II clinical trial of E1224, a promising new drug for Chagas disease.

ISGlobal and its research centre, CRESIB, will participate in Chagas Week with the support of their platform in Bolivia. Other key players who have made the event possible, as organisers, sponsors or participants, are the Bolivian Platform for the Integral Care of Patients with Chagas Disease, with support and funding from the Spanish Agency for International Development Cooperation (AECID); the Bolivian Centre for Applied Studies and Social Development, CEADES; Fundación Mundo Sano; the COHEMI network (Coordinating resources to assess and improve health status of migrants from Latin America); Universidad Mayor de San Simón; the Chagas Disease Clinical Research Platform; the European Commission; the Seventh Framework Programme; and the Drugs for Neglected Diseases initiative (DNDi).