**3. The treatment: past, present, and future**

On the other hand, the treatment of Chagas disease is restricted to the use of two nitroderivatives called benznidazole and nifurtimox developed more than half century ago, presenting its effectiveness is controversial, especially in the chronic phase. Undesirable side effects together with limited efficacy among different parasite stocks justify the intense and continuous efforts to find alternative anti-*T. cruzi* compounds; however, few drugs have reached the stage of clinical trials up to now [6]. The better understanding of cellular, molecular, and biochemical mechanisms involved in the infection of vertebrate hosts, as well as essential processes in the parasite, can provide subsidies that direct for the development of more effective drugs, and which have fewer adverse effects. It is important to encourage projects and research lines in this direction.

Another no less important point is the use of non-pharmacological approaches in the patients. As an example, it is well known that physical training improves the immune response against many kinds of infections in heart tissue. Once that the worsening of the cardiac alterations in Chagas disease has been related to the prooxidant and immunological responses triggered by the parasite, strategies that promote exacerbation of anti-inflammatory and antioxidant machinery produce protective effects against tissue injury. Recently, our group described the anti-fibrotic effect of the physical exercise in indeterminate stage model in mice, suggesting that regular physical training in indeterminate individuals could partial attenuate the progression of the cardiac lesion [7]. However, further studies analyzing the correlation physical exercise and progression of heart dysfunction must be performed in near future to answer this open question. The search of alternative approaches must be stimulated, once the chronic patients today cannot wait for the development of new drugs.

*Introductory Chapter: Chagas Disease – A Multidisciplinary Old Public Health Problem DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.103739*
