Andean subregional Chagas disease area and the Andean initiative of Chagas disease.

The Andean subregional Chagas disease area and the Andean initiative of Chagas disease consist of the association of Peru, Ecuador, Colombia, and Venezuela with their own and particular characteristics: 1. extensive area distributed in a broad latitude; 2. important echo-biological diversity; 3. biogeographically variables due to diverse altitude and latitude; 4. different epidemiological situations of Chagas endemic disease; 5. socioeconomic-cultural diversity; 6. ethnic diversity; 7. different structures and characteristics of peri and intradomiciliary areas; 8. different vectors implied in the transmission of Trypanosoma cruzi; 9. various degrees of development and continuity of the control/surveillance of Chagas disease. The initiative, created in 1997, has gotten around discontinuity periods but has served as a support of development of the prevention, control, surveillance, and care of Chagas disease, that the member countries have fulfilled. The proposed control against the vector of Chagas disease has been based on a proposal that countries developed in the Initiative, centered in actions that prioritize the concept of “risk”. Some species of triatomines of the subregion, pointed out as vectors of the greatest epidemiological importance, are prone of “elimination”, such as: