**1. Introduction: state of art**

Chagas disease and its etiological agent the protozoan *Trypanosoma cruzi* (**Figure 1**) still represents an important barrier to the public health strategies, especially in Latin America, even after more than 110 years of its discovery. Tropical neglected diseases including Chagas disease have been mainly associated with low-income populations in endemic countries, but due to the globalization nowadays, an intense migratory flux is established to well-developed countries in Europe and North America, among other continents, many cases related to blood transmission (congenital, transfusional, and transplant routes) have been notified [1, 2]. It looks incredible that neglected illnesses still present unacceptable and frightening morbimortality rates in the twenty-first century. In order to change the scenario, private and special public health authorities must

#### **Figure 1.**

*Countless bloodstream trypomastigotes of the protozoan parasite Trypanosoma cruzi. Micrograph produced by Drs. Helene Barbosa and RubemMenna-Barreto in Jeol JSM6390LV scanning electron microscope located in Plataforma de MicroscopiaEletrônica Rudolf Barth (Instituto Oswaldo Cruz, Fiocruz). Bar: 10 μm.*

work together, giving the veritable attention to these diseases, what would culminate in a reduction in the number of deaths [3].
