Andean Initiative for Chagas Disease Control

A regional intergovernmental program against Chagas disease, formally created in 1997 within the framework of the Hipolito Unanue Agreement among the health ministries of Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Venezuela, and modeled on the earlier Southern Cone Initiative against the disease that had begun in the same region of South America in 1991. The Andean Countries' Initiative targets interruption of Chagas disease transmission by the triatomine bug vectors Rhodnius prolixus, Triatoma dimidiata, Rhodnius pallescens in Panama and Rhodnius ecuadoriensis in northern Peru, together with transmission through blood transfusion, across a zone the initiative estimated held about 12.5 million people at risk and roughly 3 million already infected with Trypanosoma cruzi. Control activities in the Andean sub-region have progressed more slowly than in the Southern Cone, and by the program's own assessment, interventions had still not been installed across every area occupied by the target vector species.