In this paper, I aim to identify the different cognitive, contextual and social values involved in epidemiological research on Chagas disease. As it is considered as a ‘neglected tropical disease’ by the World Health Organization, I will try to unfold the many senses of ‘neglected’ and in which sense different non-cognitive values can be manifested in research on this disease through a pluralism of disciplines and methods. The point of departure of this investigation is a model that explains the dynamics of scientific activity, developed by Hugh Lacey (Is science value-free?, 1999), based on the notion of strategies of research, in which scientific research has to be socially framed. I will try to show that the social, political and economic conditions of certain populations, which define their ‘neglected’ character, constitute a perspective that needs to be considered in epidemiological research. Finally, this perspective is defined in the moment of adoption of strategies of research that reflects the social and ethical values adopted by scientists in Chagas disease investigations.

At the outset, Chagas disease’s classification as a ‘neglected tropical disease’ shows the importance of the role of social values reflected in strategies of epidemiological research and in the evaluation of public policies for the control and treatment of the disease. Moreover, it is also necessary to attribute a role to non-specialists in research – more specifically to the ones that are infected by this disease or that live in risk of being contaminated. After all, when scientists elect the priorities of research with the populations affected by Chagas disease, whose contamination is related to the neglected character that certain populations have in society, social scientists, anthropologists, epidemiologists and ecologists could adopt particular social values and, in doing so, develop locally appropriate and relevant research.

Finally, an evaluation of the progress of science in terms of its social progress (in the development of drugs, vaccines and public health measures) can only be realized through methodological, strategic and disciplinary pluralism. This analysis of scientific activity, that does not exclude its social dimension, interprets science as sensible to the contexts and interests that guides it and to understand the different senses in which Chagas disease is a neglected one.