Chagas Disease across Contexts: Scientific Knowledge in a Globalized World

ABSTRACT

Chagas is the most important endemic disease in Latin America. It was progressively constructed as a relevant public issue, starting as a medical problem, focusing later on housing conditions, poverty, or vector agents. In recent decades, research has mainly focused on the parasite’s biological characterization. In the meanwhile, both Chagas disease and knowledge about it spread out geographically. We analyze the worldwide scientific production on Chagas, showing that countries’ research strategies depend on two main factors: endemicity and research traditions. This approach complements previous studies, allowing us to better understand the construction of Chagas disease as a social and scientific problem.

Resumen

Chagas es la enfermedad endémica más importante de América Latina. Se construyó progresivamente como una cuestión pública relevante, comenzando como un problema médico, centrándose después en las condiciones de vivienda, la pobreza o los agentes vectores. En las últimas décadas, la investigación se ha centrado principalmente en la caracterización biológica del parásito. Mientras, tanto la enfermedad de Chagas como el conocimiento sobre ella se han extendido geográficamente. Analizamos aquí la producción científica mundial sobre Chagas, mostrando que las estrategias de investigación de los países dependen de dos factores principales: la endemicidad y las tradiciones de investigación. Este enfoque complementa los estudios anteriores, permitiéndonos comprender mejor la construcción de la enfermedad de Chagas como problema social y científico.

KEYWORDS:

• Chagas disease
• bibliometric
• health
• neglected diseases
• knowledge use

Correction Statement

This article has been republished with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Notes

1. The presence of Venezuela may be surprising. However, in a relatively limited number of articles, the existence of some highly active groups in this field in Venezuela may explain this relative “specialization”.

2. Data on Chagas prevalence and the percentage of transmission types are controversial and unreliable. Uruguay currently has no vector transmission, while Chile has much lower prevalence than reported, although it does have frequent Chagas cases. The Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) is in charge of gathering this information and its reports include discrepancies. Given that Uruguay and Chile were Chagas-endemic during most of the period, we shall consider them “Chagas-endemic countries” for analytical purposes.

3. Two examples illustrate this difference. CardioCAR is the top cluster, highlighting the important role of Cardiology, which could not be inferred from its rank in the WoS subject categories of Chagas articles, which are: Parasitology; Tropical Medicine; Biochemistry & Molecular Biology; Immunology; Infectious Diseases; Public, Environmental & Occupational Health; Microbiology; Pharmacology & Pharmacy; Chemistry, Medicinal; and finally Cardiology. The other example is the VecTRO cluster, which is defined by the interest in the parasite-carrying insects and ranks 4th. In contrast, Entomology is way down the WoS list in position 18, with less than two percent of the articles.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Luciano G. Levin

Luciano G. Levin is a researcher at the University of Río Negro and CONICET (Argentina) where he leads the post-graduate degree in STS. He works in sociology of science in particular analyzing the way in which scientific knowledge is produced and used. https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7209-805X

Pablo R. Kreimer

Pablo R. Kreimer is a sociologist and PhD in Science, Technology and Society. During last 30 years he carried out research on the history of scientific fields, the relationships between centers and peripheries and the production and use of knowledge, among other topics. He is a superior investigator at CONICET (National Scientific and Technical Research Council of Argentina), professor at the National University of Quilmes, and director of the STS Center at Maimónides University (Buenos Aires, Argentina). https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6737-8556

Pablo Jensen

Pablo Jensen after a PhD on experimental condensed-matter physics, he worked for 15 years on the modeling of nanostructure growth. This led to major publications in top journals (Nature, Phys Rev Lett). He then decided to switch to the modeling of social systems. His work takes advantage of the avalanche of social data available on the Web to improve our understanding of society. https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9912-2849