Chagas disease: an alternative look to treatment

[摘要] Chagas diseaseis a potentially fatal condition caused by the hemoparasite Trypanosoma cruzi.It is the third most widely distributed tropical disease worldwide, and an endemiccondition constituting a public health problem in Latin America. The objectiveis to conduct an updated review about Chagas disease, the genotoxicity and mutagenicityderived from its treatment, and the various therapeutic alternatives under development.To achieve such an end, a search was carried out in the databases SciELO, PubMed,ScienceDirect and Embase, using key words selected from the DeCS and combinationsthereof. The search was limited to Spanish and English and covered papers publishedfrom 2002 to 2016. It is concluded that American trypanosomiasis is a neglectedtropical disease whose pharmacological management has proved insufficient asto the risk-benefit relationship. At present there are a large number of compoundswith promising properties for alternative management of the disease.

[学科分类] 传染病学