World Chagas Disease Day is a global healthcare event observed on the 14th of April every year, intending the recognition of the neglected Chagas disease – a prevalent infectious disease usually endemic among the poor populations of Latin America but is now increasingly being diagnosed across the globe.

• Named after the Brazilian physician Carlos Chagas, who discovered it in 1909, the Chagas disease is caused by the parasite Trypanosoma cruzi, transmitted by insect vectors (mainly in rural areas of Latin America where poverty is widespread).
• Chagas disease (infection with T. cruzi) is American trypanosomiasis. 
• Sleeping sickness (infection with T. brucei) in Africa 

It is very rare in Indian soil. The discovery of first human trypanosomiasis in India originated in Maharashtra, 2005, caused by T. evansi – a microbe causing “surra” disease in horses and cattle.