Resumen

ARTEAGA VERA, Fulvio  y  ORTEGA ALMENDRAS, Viviana P.. La Cara 0culta de la Enfermedad de Chagas. Arch.Boliv.Med. [online]. 2010, vol.14, n.82, pp. 47-52. ISSN 0004-0525.

THE OTHER SIDE OF CHAGAS DlSEASE The problematic of Chagas disease exceeds the bio-psycho-social framework, as it involves the economical and political powers; that's why it passes to be not only a traditional illness of the poor people, but a paradigm of hiding and exclusion mechanisms as a mean of social and labour discrimination. In this reality several factors take part, that is to say: the State, the investigators, the medical doctors, the serological chaga-sic carriers, the patients with Chagas disease, the media, the society and the pharmaceutical industry. They all contribute in one way or another to maintain the indifference about finding a definite solution to the problem. The dominant feature is the atternpt of each sector to privilege their own conflicts of inte-rest, in such a way that a whole community work, where the knowledge and power are at the service of the poor people: those who Iive on the fringe of society, social have-nots, who suffer the illness are excluded. That's why we must face a task together, where the actions are implernented in concrete mea-sures which will strengthen the developrnent and the partici-pation of the community, also involving other sciences such as antropology, sociology, psychology, ecology, politics and econorny. Covering all levels of prevention, focusing integral medical attention of the chagasic patient, implernenting centres of study and control of Chagas disease in all its aspects, modifying the situation of marginality and forgetfulness suf-fered by millions of chagasic, victims of an illness of the poverty, aggravated by its concealment.

Palabras llave : Chagas disease; Trypanosorna cruzi; transmission forms and epidemiology.