Today is the International Chagas Day, a pathology that affects between 8-10M people, causes nearly 14.000 deaths per year and is the second most prevalent tropical disease in Latin America. Dr. Israel Molina, director of the International Health Program (PROSICS) at the Catalan public institute of health (ICS) and researcher from the Infectious Diseases group headed by Dr. Albert Pahissa at Vall d’Hebron Institute of Research (VHIR), leads an international research project which aims to find a better treatment against Chagas disease. Do you know this disease and the BERENICE project? Dr. Molina explains it to us: “Chagas disease is a parasite infection caused by the Trypanosoma cruzi protozoa. Nearly 80% of the infections come from the vector called ‘vinchuca’, which is located in the clay-brick houses of Latin America. It can also be transmitted from mother to child during the pregnancy, in organ transplantations or contracted through infected food. Chagas disease is directly associated with poverty and is one of the most serious health problems in Latin America. However, due to the immigration, it also affects people in the USA and Europe. The chronic stage of this disease may cause heart complications and/or in the 20-30% of cases digestive complications.Although Chagas disease has been identified and described for more than 100 years, treatments are limited: benznidazon and nifurtimox have recurrent secondary effects, especially in adults, which lead to the interruption of the treatment in nearly the 10% of patients. The group dedicated to Tropical Medicine and International Health at Vall d’Hebron coordinates the "http://www.vhir.org/salapremsa/mitjans/mitjans_detall.asp?Idioma=en&mv1=5&mv2=1&mh1=0&mh2=0&mh3=0&mh4=0&ms=0&any=2012&num=140" international project BERENICE, funded by the European Commission, with the aim to obtain a drug more efficient, with improved tolerance and lower cost, whose trypanocidal activity would heal Chagas disease in endemic and non-endemic countries. The encapsulation of benznidazon using nanotechnology will generate a new drug administration system. The treatment will be less toxic because the quantity of benznidazol will be reduced and, consequently, the cost and the side effects will also be reduced.