Providing information, education and communication for key people involved in Chagas disease control

Chagas is a complex socio-economic, environmental health problem and previous lack of understanding of the disease as a multidimensional challenge led to fragmented approaches and contributed to its neglected condition. Its different dimensions linked in a gearing mechanism justify the need for multidimensional approaches.

The Information, education and communication (IEC) activities, with the development of contextualized activities for various actors and scenarios about preventative measures and surveillance tools, are essential to increase awareness, reduce biomedical and psychosocial barriers to accessing diagnosis and care; keep the maximum number of actors involved; and reach the affected population, including family, friends and society in general.

Several WHO collaborating centres are helping to train community health workers in vectorial control, health care for Chagas disease, and coinfection and co-morbidity conditions. Other notable initiatives include the Catalonian Expert Patient Programme for Chagas disease, which aims to involve and strengthen the responsibility of patients for their own health and to promote self-care.

Countries of the Amazon subregion are implementing actions to strengthen their surveillance systems, notably training to identify opportunities of integration and increase capacity building, for instance integrating activities for malaria diagnosis with primary health care, focusing on detecting human cases and implementing control interventions.

Specific challenges that need to be addressed include strengthening capacity for clinical management, diagnosis, treatment and follow up by training for technical-level, health-related and university health careers.