World Chagas Disease Day
Next: April 14, 2027
Shine a light on a silent disease.
The story
Where it comes from
On 14 April 1909, in the small town of Lassance in Minas Gerais, Brazil, the doctor Carlos Chagas found a parasite in the blood of a feverish two-year-old girl named Berenice. She was the first person known to have the disease that now bears his name, caused by the parasite Trypanosoma cruzi, which he had already found in a local cat. In 2019 the World Health Assembly, on a proposal from the international federation of associations of people affected by the disease, chose 14 April as World Chagas Disease Day, first held in 2020.
How it's celebrated
WHO, health ministries and patients' associations use the day to make visible what WHO calls a 'silent and silenced disease': most people infected have mild symptoms or none, and many are poor and far from health care. They hold talks and awareness campaigns about prevention, testing and treatment. A simple way to join in is to learn how the disease spreads and to share what you learn.
Did you know
- The insects that spread it are triatomine bugs, called 'kissing bugs' in English because they often bite people on the face while they sleep.
- WHO estimates that about 8 million people are infected, mostly in Latin America, though cases are now found on other continents too.
- Worldwide, the most common way the infection now spreads is from mother to baby, during pregnancy or birth.
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