[Estimating demand for anti-Chagas drugs: a contribution for access in Latin America].

Objective: Describe a tool to estimate demand for benznidazole and nifurtimox to treat Chagas disease, and report on its implementation in a group of Latin American countries.

Methods: The project was carried out in the following stages: 1) development of a tool to estimate demand, and definition of the evaluation and decision variables to estimate demand 2) data collection via a questionnaire completed by representatives of control programs, complemented with data from the literature; 3) presentation of the tool, followed by validation, and adaptation by representatives of the control programs in order to plan drug procurement for 2012 and 2013; and 4) further analysis of the obtained data, especially regarding benznidazole, and comparison of country estimates.

Results: Fourteen endemic countries of Latin America took part in the third stage, and a consolidated estimate was made.