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Updated: Jun 8, 2026

Sexual Transmission of American Trypanosomes from Males and Females to Naive Mates
Published on: January 27, 2019
[Detection of Trypanosoma cruzi in blood donors]
Bárbara Alicia Novelo-Garza1, Gamaliel Benítez-Arvizu, América Peña-Benítez
1Coordinación de Planeación de Infraestructura Médica, Dirección de Prestaciones Médicas, Instituto Mexicano del Seguro Social, Distrito Federal, Mexico. barbara.novello@imss.gob.mx
Background:
The American trypanosomiasis is the second parasitic disease in importance after paludism and one of the main mechanism of transmission is a blood transfusion. Our objective was to measure the effect the Tripanosoma Cruzi screening test in blood banks in the Mexican Institute of Social Security.
Methods:
Information was obtained from each unit of blood collected. The Tripanosoma cruzi prevalence was calculated only in samples with double reactivity in the blood banks.
Results:
Of 71 blood banks, only 26 had been doing T. Cruzi screen; after implementation of integrated services 55 are doing the screening. There were 935 donors with double reactivity to the T. Cruzi test from 230,074 samples. The national prevalence was 0.406%. The seroprevalence was 0.013% to 3.118%.
Conclusions:
The screening of the T. cruzi improved the detection and increased the safety and the prevention of its transmission by blood transfusion.
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