Chagas' Disease — Can We Stop the Deaths?

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Abstract
Nearly 100 years since its discovery by the Brazilian physician Carlos Chagas, the protozoan parasite Trypanosoma cruzi remains perhaps the most common cause of myocarditis worldwide. The lethality of Chagas' heart disease is undisputed, as the survival curves presented by Rassi et al. in this issue of the Journal illustrate with chilling clarity (pages 799–808). More than 10 million Latin Americans carry the parasite, and at least 1 million of them will die unless scientific and political breakthroughs lead to new strategies and tools for diagnosis, treatment, and increased access to medical care.1 Chagas' disease (American trypanosomiasis) afflicts impoverished people . . .