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Updated: May 17, 2026
In Vitro Drug Screening Against All Life Cycle Stages of Trypanosoma cruzi Using Parasites Expressing β-galactosidase
Published on: November 5, 2021
Overcoming language and cultural barriers: a graphical communication tool to perform a parasitological screening in
María Pía Buyayisqui1, Noemí Bordoni, Graciela Garbossa
1Laboratorio de Parasitología Clínica, Departamento de Química Biológica, Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales, Universidad de Buenos Aires, e Instituto de Investigaciones en Salud Pública, Universidad de Buenos Aires, Buenos Aires, Argentina.
Abstract:
This is an exploratory study of the application of a support tool for the detection of asymptomatic subjects carrying enteric parasites in two vulnerable populations in Argentina: a shantytown in the city of Buenos Aires and a rural Wichí indigenous community in the province of Chaco. The ethnic and cultural diversity, high illiteracy rate, and language barriers called for the development of an auxiliary resource to explain stool sample collection procedures. In individual interviews with each family, the authors used two instructional guidance leaflets in comic strip format depicting the procedures. They evaluated the acceptance of the graphical communication tool on the basis of the number of retrieved samples. Percentages of respondent families were 72.2% and 66.7%, respectively. Definitive validation of these instruments would allow their use in community studies, community service learning experiences, and research on aboriginal communities that would otherwise be excluded from studies on health status.
