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[Clinical and epidemiological study of blood donors seropositive for Trypanosoma cruzi]
1Departamento de Parasitología, Facultad de Medicina, Universidad de Chile, Santiago, Chile.
Background:
The prevalence of positive antibodies for Chagas disease in a blood bank of a public hospital in Santiago is 1.2%. These positive individuals should be informed about their condition and further studied.
Aim:
To perform a serological confirmation, an epidemiological and clinical assessment of blood donors seropositive for Chagas disease in a blood bank of Santiago.
Subjects And Methods:
One hundred eleven seropositive donors, detected between 1994 and 1996, were studied. Serological reactions were confirmed with ELISA and indirect immunofluorescence reactions. Those confirmed as positive were subjected to a clinical-epidemiological questionnaire, physical examination, EKG and barium enema or swallow according to symptoms.
Results:
Seventy individuals were confirmed as positive for Chagas disease. Most of them lived at least once in an endemic zone for Chagas disease or in a sun-dried clay brick house. Forty-percent of individuals knew reduviid bugs and 14% had been bitten by these insects. Twenty six percent of these subjects had an abnormal EKG (61% with bradycardia). No digestive diseases attributable to Chagas disease were detected.
Conclusions:
The high prevalence of problems attributable to Chagas disease among seropositive blood donors underscores the need of an epidemiological follow up of these individuals.