Chagas disease kills about 21,000 people per year, or 1.4 million over a lifetime of about 70 years. With an average remaining life expectancy of roughly 30 years, that's about 42 million life-years. In addition, perhaps 3 close relatives of the victims would be affected to an extent equivalent to, let's say, 1 year of their lives, or around 4.2 million life-years. About 17 million people were infected with Chagas disease at its peak, affecting victims to an extent equivalent to about 1 life-year, or about 17 million life-years. Over 70 years, there may be about 3 generations, for about 51 million life-years.

Human News aims to devote 1 character to each 40,000 life-years, or 1000 average lives. Thus, this story has (97 million) / 40,000 = about 2400 characters.