The Neglected Tropical Diseases of Latin America and the Caribbean: A Review of Disease Burden and Distribution and a Roadmap for Control and Elimination

Abstract

The neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) represent some of the most common infections of the poorest people living in the Latin American and Caribbean region (LAC). Because they primarily afflict the disenfranchised poor as well as selected indigenous populations and people of African descent, the NTDs in LAC are largely forgotten diseases even though their collective disease burden may exceed better known conditions such as of HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, or malaria. Based on their prevalence and healthy life years lost from disability, hookworm infection, other soil-transmitted helminth infections, and Chagas disease are the most important NTDs in LAC, followed by dengue, schistosomiasis, leishmaniasis, trachoma, leprosy, and lymphatic filariasis. On the other hand, for some important NTDs, such as leptospirosis and cysticercosis, complete disease burden estimates are not available. The NTDs in LAC geographically concentrate in 11 different sub-regions, each with a distinctive human and environmental ecology. In the coming years, schistosomiasis could be eliminated in the Caribbean and transmission of lymphatic filariasis and onchocerciasis could be eliminated in Latin America. However, the highest disease burden NTDs, such as Chagas disease, soil-transmitted helminth infections, and hookworm and schistosomiasis co-infections, may first require scale-up of existing resources or the development of new control tools in order to achieve control or elimination. Ultimately, the roadmap for the control and elimination of the more widespread NTDs will require an inter-sectoral approach that bridges public health, social services, and environmental interventions.

ELISA seroprevalence of Trypanosoma cruzi in a cohort of heart disease patients

“…Chagas disease, also known as "American trypanosomiasis", "poverty disease" and "promoter of poverty", is the fourth most important vectortransmitted parasitic disease in Latin America [1], accounting for 662,000 disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) per annum [2]. Since its identification in 1909, this disease had been confined to Latin America until it emerged in the United States and Europe in the last few decades due to the high immigration rate from endemic regions [3][4][5].…”

Ergosterol biosynthesis and drug development for Chagas disease

“…Although a century has passed since the discovery of American Trypanosomiasis or Chagas disease (Chagas 1911), it remains the largest parasitic disease burden on the American continent, yet it is one of the most neglected parasitic diseases in the world; to combat the disease requires an integrated approach that addresses its underlying eco-socio-economic causes (Morel et al 2005, Dias 2007, Holveck et al 2007, Hotez et al 2008). Significant advances have taken place to control the vectorial and transfusional transmission of the disease in some parts of the continent.…”

Seroprevalencia de la infección por Trypanosoma cruzi en Canis familiaris del estado Sucre, Venezuela

“…Las principales formas de transmisión de la enfermedad de Chagas son vectorial, transfusional y congénita, así como otras (oral, trasplantes, accidentes en laboratorios) (6,7). La vía más importante de transmisión y mantenimiento de la endemia chagásica se asocia con la pobreza y ocurre en viviendas con condiciones precarias, tanto en áreas rurales como en periurbanas, en las cuales abundan las colonias de triatominos asociadas con reservorios domésticos y peridomésticos que sirven como fuente de alimentación (8).…”