University of Illinois
 University of Buenos Aires
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Solution

The most important solution to Chagas Disease is Prevention and Control

 

The main strategies are:

1) Treatment of homes with insecticides to kill vectors. A Musal fumigant canister produced in Argentina (pictured), produces insecticidal fumes which kill triatomine bugs.

2) Blood screening to prevent transmission through transfusion.

3) Drug treatment for acute, early, indeterminate and congenital cases.

4) Home improvement. Substituting plastered walls and a metal roof for adobe-walled, thatch-roofed dwellings to render them unsuitable for colonization by vectors.

For therapy, two drugs (nifurtimox and benznidazole) can be used for the early chronic phase of disease.
T. cruzi antigens can stimulate autoimmunity, so the prospects for an effective vaccine are slim.
Travellers can avoid the disease by not sleeping in infested housing and ensuring that any transfusions are with blood that has been screened for the parasite.