11th Annual Meeting and First Virtual Meeting of the Intergovernmental Commission of the Amazonian Countries Initiative for the Surveillance and Control of Chagas Disease (AMCHA)

Abstract

The Intergovernmental Commission of the Amazon Countries Initiative for the Surveillance and Control of Chagas Disease (AMCHA) held its 11th Annual Meeting and First Virtual Meeting on 27-28 May 2021. This meeting report lists the recommendations, conclusions and resolutions agreed. Representatives from Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Guyana, Peru, Siriname and Venezuela and other partners on Chagas participated in the meeting and presented the epidemiological situation of Chagas disease in their countries. Due to the particular Amazonian situation of vectorial transmission based mostly on the wild cycle of Trypanosoma cruzi with diversity of triatomine vectors involved in effective transmission, and the variety of eco-epidemiological situations that facilitate such transmission, the countries of the Amazon agreed that the development and strengthening of preventive actions based on comprehensive surveillance and detection of effective vectorial transmission, based on mandatory notification of acute or chronic cases, was required. In addition, it was recommended that surveillance and prevention and/or vector control actions should be implemented through local governments (minimum administrative and territorial units of each country), which Colombia adopted as an approach strategy, as a tool that can be useful in complex situations of different types and entities; implementation of all necessary capacities to diagnose Chagas disease, in all clinical symptoms that are compatible with it, especially febrile syndromes without diagnostic confirmation of malaria and dengue (in urban environments); and use the detection of acute cases of Chagas disease, and even of chronic cases when possible, as an indicator for a concomitant epidemiological investigation, and eventual adoption of measures for prevention, control and clinical care of the cases in the situation studied.