Seminar Summary – Disease, Disparities, and Development: Evidence from Chagas Disease Control in Brazil
On November 20, 2024, the Human Capital Initiative (HCI) hosted Jon Denton-Schneider, Assistant Professor of Economics at Clark University, for the final installment of the 2024 Fall HCI Research Seminar Series. He presented his joint work with Eduardo Montero at the University of Chicago titled, “Disease, Disparities, and Development: Evidence from Chagas Disease Control in Brazil.” Denton-Schneider’s work explored the impacts of Neglected Tropical Disease (NTD) control on reducing racial and socioeconomic disparities in health outcomes in Latin America.
Denton-Schneider began his presentation by giving an overview of Latin America’s current standing with Chagas disease, which is unique to the region. Latin America is already one of the world’s most unequal regions, both in terms of race and socioeconomic inequality. Chagas primarily occurs among poor, non-white and rural Latin Americans, and has a very high morbidity rate. It is described as a “silent killer,” as the disease’s non-specific cardiovascular symptoms appear over a long (10-plus year) period. Denton-Schneider alluded that Chagas could potentially be responsible for some of the disparities and underdevelopment in the region, and tackling the burden of NTDs in Latin American countries more broadly could be one way to address these disparities in health and development.
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Denton-Schneider and Montero’s research adds to the growing body of literature exploring how disease treatment and control can impact broader issues such as poverty, employment and education. As climate change leads to rising temperatures in various regions, there is a risk that Chagas disease could spread, making more areas of the United States conducive to the proliferation of its vectors. The positive effects of this intervention on racial and socioeconomic disparities offer hope that further healthcare research can tackle not only health issues but also the broader social determinants of health.
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