10/04/2019
Press Bulletin No. 157, 2019
- The opinion of a commission of PAHO experts was that these municipalities interrupted the transmission of this disease caused by the insect known as pito.
Audio: Certification of interruption of the transmission of Chagas disease in 33 municipalities of 6 provinces is a great achievement for the country. These were the remarks by Minister Juan Pablo Uribe.
Bogotá, October 4, 2019. As of Friday, 66 Colombian municipalities have worldwide certification for interrupting the vector transmission of Chagas disease, a great advance for municipal, province and national governments, to continue providing better health and equity conditions to citizens.
The country was certified after an assessment by a commission of the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), from September 23rd until Friday, of the actions that the Health Offices and the Ministry of Health and Social Protection carried out starting 2017 in 34 municipalities of Santander, Boyacá, Casanare, Arauca, Norte de Santander and Vichada, to prevent the transmission of this dangerous disease by the insect known as pito.
In 2014 and 2017, other 33 municipalities of Santander, Boyacá, Cundinamarca, Arauca and Casanare were certified by PAHO, after 2009 when the country began to implement this Interruption Plan. By 2022 the goal is for there to be 106 municipalities with that accreditation.
The international certification is an endorsement that the level of risk of contracting this disease has been reduced in those municipalities, which is part of the forgotten, silent and invisible events. It is caused by infection of the Trypanosoma cruzi parasite, transmitted primarily by contact with the fecal matter of infected pitos. According to studies, 30% of people infected develop the disease. The most common effects are on the heart and, to a lesser extent, on the digestive system, especially the colon or esophagus. It can ultimately become deadly.
The PAHO verification commission visited the municipalities of Arauca (Arauca), El Zulia (Norte de Santander) and Yopal, Pore, Nunchía and Sabanalarga (Casanare)–the selected sample–to verify the conditions of interruption of disease transmission. The commission conducted interviews with citizens, reviewed infrastructure conditions, compiled reports from health authorities and began analyzing the results of government actions. This evaluation concluded this Friday in Bogotá.
Héctor Cotto, PAHO/WHO advisor and commission leader, said that the visits to the territories and the analysis of the reports showed that the country and municipalities had made great efforts to block the risks of infection of Chagas disease, and that the objective had been attained.
"Colombia has consolidated in the implementation of the Interruption Plan. The country reports are extensive, because the interventions were made in a number of municipalities and people and there is great progress, which also implies significant commitments and we know that Colombia will face and overcome, by working in an intersectoral way. They have fully met the objective," Cotto said.
The Interruption Plan and verification of it is the best way to reduce the incidence of this disease in endemic areas in at least 95% of cases and thus eliminate it as a public health problem by insect transmission. With this strategy, some 686,000 people in the 67 municipalities in Colombia, which have been intervened so far, will benefit. Of this population group, 43% are under 15 years old.
The country, thanks to the Interruption Plan, reduced Chagas disease lethality, for example, by 48% between 2017 and 2019. The Plan involved the design and implementation of the actions to obtain international certification, which articulates the competencies of the nation, provinces and municipalities. Also, comprehensive clinical care of chronic cases and screening in pregnant women was increased.
Devices were developed for the control of the pitos, monitoring of the presence of this insect and dissemination of information on the risk of the disease.
"This interruption plan and certification contributes to the reduction of inequalities, since it encourages collective attention and articulation of these with individual ones, especially in rural areas of difficult access. It also facilitates the strengthening of territorial governance, given that it is led by provinces and governorships, by the articulation of the Ministry, which supports and accompanies them, together with the National Institute of Health," concluded Juan Pablo Uribe, Minister of Health and Social Protection.
In Colombia
Chagas disease is especially related to poor populations in rural areas. Colombia is considered endemic, because of the various forms of transmission. Risk areas are the Eastern Plains, the Magdalena River Valley, Boyacá, the Santanderes, the Serranía del Perijá, the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta, the Amazon and the Atlantic Coast.
In Colombia, estimates by the World Health Organization (WHO) are that some 4.8 million people are at risk of infection. Of these, 438,000 are ill and 5,274 new cases are estimated to appear every year. Chagas heart disease figures in the country (the most severe) reach 131,388 cases. Lethality from 2008 to 2012 was 12.5%.
The World Health Organization (WHO) states that Chagas affects more than 6 million people in the world, mostly in Latin America.
The certified municipalities
Norte de Santander: Santiago, El Zulia and San Cayetano.
Santander: Ocamonte, Charalá, Jesús María, Guavatá, Macaravita, San Miguel, Capitanejo, San José de Miranda and Molagavita.
Casanare: Sabanalarga, Chámeza, Recetor, Sácama and La Salina.
Arauca: Arauca
Boyacá: Sutatenza, Garagoa, Chinavita, Miraflores, Zetaquirá, Pajarito, Socotá, Guacamayas, Panqueva, El Espino, San Mateo, Paya and Labranzagrande.
Vichada: Santa Rosalia and La Primavera.
