A study on resistance to chemical control tools of Chagas prevention campaigns has started. Based on the analysis of genetic mutations in "vinchucas", the researh by Sheila Ons seeks to generate a test for the early detection of resistance.

For more than 20 years, the campaigns of triatomine chemical control in Latin America are based on the use of pyrethroid insecticides. This fact has caused populations of vinchucas with different rates of resistance in several countries in the region, which constitutes a threat to prevention programs.

The Chagas control programs, both in Argentina and the rest of Latin America, have used as a tool to attack vector insecticides like DDT, from the 50s, and then move on to chlorinated hydrocarbons. Beginning in 1980 introduced the use of pyrethroid insecticides, which were for many years an efficient tool for their favorable toxicological properties.

Studies conducted in recent years in Argentina and other Latin American countries, reported the existence of populations triatomine with varying degrees of resistance to pyrethroids, including San Luis, Catamarca, Mendoza, La Rioja and Salta. The most worrisome are on the outskirts of Salvador Mazza (department of San Martín, Salta Province) and in the city of Yacuiba, in the south of Bolivia. In these regions are officially reported since 2002 inefficiency in the implementation of campaigns pyrethroids in homes infested.

By RACE-PCR technique will be studied possible genetic mutations in populations resistant. The information obtained may be used to design a simple diagnosis based on PCR, which allows early detection of the possible emergence and spread of resistant populations, as a tool in planning campaigns vector control.