Project News

The 11th annual meeting of the Central American Initiative for Chagas Disease Control was held in San Jose, Costa Rica from November 18 to 20. The Central American Initiative (Iniciativa de los Paises Centroamericana para Control de la Enfermedad de Chagas: IPCA) was launched in 1997 by Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) and seven Central American Countries (Belize, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama) to reduce the risk of Chagas disease in Central America. JICA has participated in the IPCA meetings since 1998.

Photo (left): Dr. Hector Ramos (left) and Mr. Eduardo Romero (2nd from left) present progress of Chagas disease control in El Salvador
Photo (right): Dr. Mario Serpas participates in the discussion.

The IPCA meeting involved representatives from a variety of countries and organizations. From the Ministry of Health of El Salvador, Dr. Mario Serpas (Director of Surveillance Department), Dr. Hector Ramos (Chagas disease Coordinator), Mr. Eduardo Romero (Vector Control Unit), and Dr. Blanca Cuyuch (Western Regional Office) participated and presented the progress of Chagas Disease Control. From JICA Project, Dr. Jun Nakagawa (Chief advisor) and Ms. Emi Sasagawa (Project Manager) participated in the meeting. Participants from JICA also included Dr. Yuichiro Tabaru (JICA expert/ Member of JICA committee on Chagas disease projects) and JICA experts from Honduras (Mr. Jiro Nakamura, Dr. Ken Hashimoto). PAHO coordinated the meeting and participants also included representatives from all the Central American countries as well as from WHO, Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) and investigators from universities in the region.

Photo (left):Dr. Jun Nakagawa presents progress of JICA project.
Photo (right): Participants from El Salvador-JICA team. From left, Mr. Eduardo Romero, Dr. Mario Serpas, Dr. Blanca Cuyuch, Ms. Emi Sasagawa, Dr. Jun Nakagawa, and Dr. Hector Ramos.

The meeting this year was particularly fruitful with some key progress in Chagas disease control in the region. Guatemala, where JICA has cooperated on Chagas disease control since 1996, was the first country in Central America to be certified for interruption of Chagas disease transmission via Rhodnius prolixus. El Salvador presented progress on the control of Triatoma dimidiata and other JICA projects. JICA projects in El Salvador and Honduras co-presented the progress on the community-based surveillance system which is a key activity.

Attachment 1.Presentation by Ministry of Health of El Salvador(PDF/6.1MB)
Attachment 2.Presentation by JICA project(PDF/250KB)
Attachment 3.Presentation by Dr Cuyuch on community-based surveillance).(PDF/1MB)

The meeting drew up thirty-four key agreements and recommendations on Chagas disease control.

Attachment 4.agreements and recommendations of the 11th IPCA meeting (in Spanish).(PDF/31KB)

The key agreements includes certification of interruption of Chagas disease transmission via R. prolixus in Guatemala; international evaluation of progress in El Salvador for certification of elimination of R. prolixus in El Salvador; organization of an international meeting with all the four regional initiatives on Chagas disease in 2009, and strengthening the control of Chagas disease via the 62nd World Health Assembly.