Headlines, Latin America & the Caribbean

/ARTS WEEKLY/FILM-ARGENTINA: Fighting Chagas’ Disease, Camera in Hand

Marcela Valente

BUENOS AIRES, Aug 30 2005 (IPS) - “I met so many people suffering from this disease, people who are used to living a hard life, to suffering in silence, who don’t complain or demand that more attention be paid to this problem,” said Argentine filmmaker Ricardo Preve.

His first film, a documentary, focuses on the often deadly Chagas’ disease, which affects an estimated 16 to 18 million people in Latin America, with around 50,000 dying of its effects each year. There is no cure or vaccine, and in most cases only treatment of symptoms is possible.

The disease is caused by the bite of the reduviid bug (from the Reduviidae family and the Triatominae subfamily), which lives in crevices and gaps in poor rural housing – like thatch, mud or adobe huts – in 18 Latin American countries.

Preve’s film, “Chagas, un mal escondido” (roughly, “Chagas, a Hidden Plague”), delves into the social impact of a disease that mainly affects poor people.

“I was going to make a full-length fiction film, with a doctor who specialises in Chagas’ disease as the central character, but this harsh reality captivated me and the work turned into a documentary,” Preve told IPS.

His film features more than 50 interviews with patients, doctors, researchers and government officials, gathered in five provinces of Argentina and among Latin American immigrants living with Chagas’ disease in Belgium, Switzerland, France and the United States.

“Coming across this hidden reality had a strong impact on me, and I became an activist against Chagas’ disease,” said the brand-new filmmaker.

“Many of those who are affected by the disease are undocumented immigrants in the United States or Europe, who have no health insurance and do not speak the language of the country where they live, so very few people know about the terrible problems they face,” said Preve.

Although the disease is generally transmitted by the bite of the reduviid bug – also known as the vinchuca, assassin or kissing bug – Preve also interviewed people who were infected by blood transfusions or organ transplants.

The documentary made its premiere this month in Argentina at the seventh international festival of human rights films and videos, in the northwestern province of Santiago del Estero.

It will be shown over the next few weeks in other film competitions and in special events organised by medical associations.

“The scientific community’s reaction to the film was fantastic,” said Preve. “Without exception, they opened up their doors to me. And one of the doctors, a specialist in congenital Chagas’ disease, is the director of the orchestra that plays the music used in the film.”

Chagas’ disease has three stages: acute infection, in which symptoms occur soon after infection; an asymptomatic phase, which can last months or years; and chronic infection.

In the first stage, which only a small minority of patients suffer, symptoms include swelling of the eye on one side of the face, exhaustion, fever, enlarged liver or spleen, swollen lymph glands, a rash, loss of appetite, diarrhoea, and vomiting.

Symptoms in the chronic stage can appear years or even decades after infection. Health problems include serious, irreversible damage to the heart or intestinal tract.

In Argentina, the bugs are found in rural areas throughout the country, but are especially prevalent in northern, western and central provinces where the climate is warm or temperate but dry.

The reduviid bug transmits a protozoan parasite named Trypanosoma cruzi through its faeces, which human victims unwittingly rub into the bite wound left by the bug, or into their eyes, mouth or nose. The parasites thus enter the victim’s bloodstream and gradually invade most organs of the body, often causing severe damage to the heart, digestive tract or nervous system.

An estimated 32 percent of those infected die from organ damage during the chronic phase.

Brazilian physician and infectologist Carlos Chagas (1879-1934) discovered the parasite before the disease itself was even identified.

Although most patients contract the disease after they are bitten by the reduviid bug, which comes out at night from cracks in the walls and roof to feast on its victims, infected women can also pass the parasite to their babies, and infection can be transmitted by blood transfusions or transplants.

Scientific researchers have made progress in treating the disease in both the acute and chronic phases, and Chagas’ disease can now be cured in children under 14 and in recently infected adults.

In addition, medical researchers in Argentina and Brazil have come up with promising results in treating chronic patients by transplanting stem cells from the patients’ own bone marrow into their severely damaged hearts.

But poor countries in Latin America continue facing the challenge of funding effective prevention programmes involving spraying, inspections and monitoring of homes by public health authorities to eradicate the reduviid bug in rural housing.

Another major problem is the lack of interest on the part of the pharmaceutical industry, which sees no lucrative market in developing drugs against a disease that affects mainly poor people, complain researchers and activists.

Preve’s film is aimed at awakening concern about the disease and fuelling interest in coming up with a cure or vaccine.

The film will go on commercial release in Argentina and Spain before the end of the year.

The producers also plan to sell DVD versions of the documentary in Spain for one euro (1.20 dollars). The funds raised will go in their entirety to the Spanish chapter of Doctors Without Borders.

Preve said he will likely turn now to his initial idea of directing a fictional film whose main protagonist would be a doctor who is studying the disease. But, he added, he will now have an in-depth familiarity with the problem and a commitment to those who suffer from the disease.

“There is no turning back” from his new activism on behalf of those living with Chagas’ disease, he said.

“My idea is to film the new movie and to add the documentary to the DVD version for those who are interested in learning more about this disease, which we live with and which is spreading silently under our indifferent gaze,” said Preve.