Maguire BJ, Dahal P, Rashan S, et al. - Researchers conducted a systematic review describing the characteristics and treatment practices of clinical studies in Chagas disease (CD), also known as American trypanosomiasis.

• A total of 11,966 unique citations were screened, 109 (0.9%) of these studies (31 observational and 78 interventional) representing 23,116 patients were included.

• This review led to the identification of a large volume of studies, however, there was a large heterogeneity evident in study design, diagnostic methods, outcome assessment, and treatment regimens.

• A fifth of the study cohorts were from non-endemic regions (United States, Spain and Switzerland).

• Scientists and funding agencies of the global distribution and burden of Chagas disease are recognizing the disease and the phenomenon of international migration is indicated as suggested by the increasing number of patient cohorts from non-endemic countries and increased volume of publications in the past 10 years.

• However, Chagas disease still remained neglected even with this substantial increase, as indicated by the limited total volume of studies and evidence assembled over the last two decades.

• The included studies most commonly involved evaluation of the following trypanocidal treatment: benznidazole (treated patients, n = 12,467) followed by nifurtimox with only 825 treated patients.

• Considering the results from this review, it is suggested that development of a Chagas disease data platform for clinical research would allow optimization of existing data to strengthen evidence for the treatment and diagnosis of Chagas disease.