Chagas disease: criteria of cure and prognosis

Therapeutic protocols for treating the acute and recent-chronic phases of Chagas disease were unanimously agreed upon by participants of the Symposium on the Specific Treatment of Chagas Disease n 1985. However, long-term clinical trials among patients treated (cured and uncured) for the indeterminate-chronic and initial-cardiac disease forms were recommended to better evaluate the curative action of drugs and to study the clinical evolution of the disease. Clinical trials among these groups of patients were published because studies reported low efficacy of benznidazole in chronic disease (Ferreira 1970, Cançado 1980) while the evaluation of cure was defined as negative parasi-tologic and serologic test results (Cançado &amp