Chagas Disease in the WHO’s Global Report on NTDs 2025

The World Health Organization (WHO) has published the Global Report on Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTDs) 2025. Under the claim “Stronger together, towards 2030“, this document highlights encouraging progress in the battle against these 21 neglected tropical diseases with the focus on their elimination as a public health problem by 2030.

Regarding updated data on Chagas disease, it remains alongside dengue fever as the neglected diseases with the highest burden in the Americas. Other notable contributors include leishmaniasis and cysticercosis, many of which are linked to zoonotic or vector-borne transmission in rural and periurban areas.

Chagas disease is found mainly in 21 continental Latin America countries, considered endemic. However, the presence of the disease is increasing globally. As of December 2024, a total of 44 countries had detected cases, including the United States, Canada, 17 European countries, and several countries in the Western Pacific, Africa, and the Eastern Mediterranean.

All of these countries have been provided with technical support and antiparasitic medicines, and also case reporting and information systems are being implemented. Efforts are ongoing to quantify actual incidence and prevalence of Chagas disease. Six countries (Brazil, Chile, Ecuador, Mexico, Paraguay, and Uruguay) have already established national regulations for reporting acute and chronic cases and for conducting epidemiological surveillance of disease transmission. Other countries, such as Colombia and Spain, have significantly increased surveillance coverage.

In continental Latin America some countries have fully implemented universal blood donor screening. These are: Argentina, Belize, Bolivia (Plurinational State of), Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Guyana, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Venezuela, Suriname, and Uruguay. Canada and the United States of America have adopted national recommendations of testing all donors identified by a questionnaire as being at risk of infection.

With the significant reduction of vectorial transmission in Latin America, congenital transmission has become the most relevant route worldwide. Interventions to eliminate congenital Chagas disease transmission have been initiated in several countries in the Americas and two European countries (Spain and Switzerland). The Region of Murcia (Spain) is the first area to claim to have achieved sustained interruption of congenital transmission over the past eight years. These activities are based on screening for Trypanosoma cruzi infection in girls and women of childbearing age, followed by antiparasitic treatment for positive cases, screening of pregnant women at risk of infection, antiparasitic treatment for all affected newborns and siblings, and treatment of infected mothers after breastfeeding.

Regarding the distribution of funding by each NTD, during 2018-2023 half was invested in projects covering more than one disease. Among the projects focused on a specific disease, lymphatic filariasis, trachoma, dengue, human African trypanosomiasis, leishmaniasis, and onchocerciasis got more attention than other conditions. Far from that, Chagas is one of the neglected diseases that receives the least funding, accounting for 0.9% of the total.

There are two drugs indicated to treat Chagas disease: Nifurtimox and Benznidazole. Both are donated through WHO and available free of charge since 2011 and 2020, respectively. Benznidazole can also be obtained at a “no-profit” price through PAHO’s Revolving Fund and the Mundo Sano Foundation/Insud Pharma.

The World Health Organization is updating with this report the situation of the NTD Roadmap towards 2030, which includes the elimination of american trypanosomiasis, known as Chagas disease, as a public health problem.

Read the official new by the World Health Organization HERE.