Reactivation of Chagas Disease: Implications for Global Health

Abstract

Reactivation of Chagas Disease (CD) is a global public health issue. Reactivation of disease can affect the management of CD and its clinical outcome, adding pressure to global health systems because it exacerbates symptoms, leading to misdiagnosis and delays in the administration of correct treatments. Concurrent infections complicate the issue of reactivation, because there are various parasites and disease treatment regimens that are able to influence or suppress the immune system of the host, reactivating disease within infected individuals. The effect of delayed symptoms of chronic CD and the potential for disease reactivation are of great importance to nonendemic regions of the world, where knowledge about CD is lacking and the potential for vectorial transmission is not known.

Keywords: Chagas disease; Trypanosoma cruzi; concurrent infections; indeterminate infection; reactivation.