Interventions to bring comprehensive care to people with Chagas disease: Experiences in Bolivia, Argentina and Colombia.

Chagas disease (CD) affects over six million people and is a leading cause of heart failure in the Americas. Few are able to access diagnosis and treatment for CD, resulting in a missed opportunity to prevent morbimortality. Integration of testing and treatment with the primary healthcare level is a key step in ensuring affected people receive timely antitrypansomal therapy, which increasing evidence shows can prevent chronic complications from the disease and halt congenital transmission.

Reporting of adverse reactions to benznidazole: does medical expertise matter?

This study evaluated and compared follow-up and adverse drug reaction (ADR) reporting for Chagas disease (CD) patients treated with benznidazole (BZN) by two health teams with different levels of experience, using medical records for 204 patients participating in the first year of a scaled-up public health program for CD case detection and treatment conducted at all 46 primary health care centers in La Plata district, Buenos Aires, Argentina, in 2014. Both teams were experienced in CD patient management and trained in BZN administration, and included senior physicians, but one team had no experience in administering BZN while the other team had three years of experience due to their participation in the program's pilot project. Patients with positive serology for CD were treated with 5 mg/kg/day of BZN for 60 days.