Table 1.

Potential Strategies for Improving the Proportion of Parasitological Cure in a Population of Trypanosoma cruzi–Infected Humans

Strategy	Current Situation	Potential for Improvement
Screening	<1% of populations in areas at risk of vectorial transmission are tested [6]. (In purposely designed screening programs, coverage has reached 70% [15])	Design screening campaigns and PoC diagnostics that reach the largest proportion of Trypanosoma cruzi–infected individuals (in addition to children); introduce screening tests in antenatal clinics and routine hospital visits in endemic areas or target populations
Diagnostic test performance	Sensitivity of serological diagnostics varies between 90% and 95% [24]	Increase sensitivity and specificity of diagnostics, especially for measuring parasitological cure
Access to and abandonment of etiological treatment	Low access to treatment among T. cruzi–infected individuals and high rate of abandonment because of SAEs [9, 25]	- Reduce barriers to access to treatment - Improve availability of drugs - Reduce SAEs - Increase supervision by medical professionals during treatment course
Parasitological efficacy (sustained parasite clearance)	Reported at 88% and 94% in 2 clinical trials, measured by real-time PCR [10, 11]	Develop novel drugs

Abbreviations: PCR, polymerase chain reaction; PoC, point of care; SAE, severe adverse event.