In a recent article in the Reader’s Opinion, advantages and disadvantages of the
certification processes of interrupted Chagas disease transmission (American
trypanosomiasis) by native vector were discussed. Such concept, accepted by those
authors for the case of endemic situations with introduced vectors, has been built on
a long and laborious process by endemic countries and Subregional Initiatives for
Prevention, Control and Treatment of Chagas, with Technical Secretariat of the Pan
American Health Organization/World Health Organization, to create a horizon target
and goal to concentrate priorities and resource allocation and actions. With varying
degrees of sucess, which are not replaceable for a certificate of good practice, has
allowed during 23 years to safeguard the effective control of transmission of
Trypanosoma cruzi not to hundreds of thousands, but millions of people at risk
conditions, truly “the art of the possible.”
Cystic echinococcosis is a highly endemic parasitic zoonosis that is present in the
Southern Cone countries of America. For several decades, various prevention and
control programmes have been implemented in different countries and regions, with
varying results. In Uruguay, a new control programme was implemented in 2006 that
employed new strategies for canine diagnosis and treatment, dog population control,
diagnosis in humans, epidemiological surveillance, and health education, including
community participation. The control programme in Uruguay addresses the control and
surveillance of the disease from a holistic perspective based on Primary Health Care,
which has strengthened the community’s participation in developing and coordinating
activities in an interdisciplinary manner. Similarly, the control programme that is
currently implemented is based on a risk-focused approach. The surveillance and
control measures were focused on small villages and extremely poor urban areas. In
this study, the strategies used and the results obtained from 2008-2013 are analysed
and discussed.
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