Trends of T. cruzi infection based on data from blood bank screening Monitorização da infecção pelo T. cruzi através do rastreamento sorológico em bancos de sangue

• Published in: Revista do Instituto de Medicina Tropical de São Paulo
• Main Authors: Fabio Zicker, Celina Maria Turchi Martelli, Ana Lucia Sampaio Sgambatti de Andrade, Simonne Almeida e Silva
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Universidade de São Paulo (USP) 1990
• Subjects: Trypanosoma cruzi; cross-sectional survey; blood bank screening; Arctic medicine. Tropical medicine; RC955-962; Infectious and parasitic diseases; RC109-216; Arctic
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.1590/S0036-46651990000200011; https://doaj.org/article/d81c4951657a484195dd8a14f056c7e0

Between October 1988 and April 1989 a cross-sectional survey was carried out in six out of eight blood banks of Goiânia, Central Brazil. Subjects attending for first-time blood donation in the mornings of the study period (n = 1358) were interviewed and screened for T. cruzi infection as a part of a major study among blood donors. Tests to anti-T. cruzi antibodies were performed, simultaneously, by indirect hem agglutination test (IHA) and complement fixation test (CFT). A subject was considered seropositive when any one of the two tests showed a positive result. Information on age, sex, place of birth, migration and socio-economic level was recorded. Results from this survey were compared with seroprevalence rates obtained in previous studies in an attempt to analyse trend of T. cruzi infection in an endemic urban area. The overall seroprevalence of T. cruzi infection among first-time donors was found to be 3.5% (95% confidence interval 2.5%-4.5% ). The seroprevalence rate increased with age up to 45 years and then decreased. Migrants from rural areas had higher seroprevalence rates than subjects from urban counties (1.8%-16.2% vs. 0%-3.6%). A four fold decrease in prevalence rates was observed when these rates were compared with those of fifteen years ago. Two possible hypotheses to explain this difference were suggested: 1. a cohort effect related with the decrease of transmission in rural areas and/or 2. a differential proportion of people of rural origin among blood donors between the two periods. The potential usefulness of blood banks as a source of epidemiological information to monitor trends of T. cruzi infection in an urban adult population was stressed. Dados de soroprevalência para doença de Chagas em primo-doadores de sangue obtidos num estudo seccional foram comparados com estimativas prévias obtidas há 15 anos na mesma população no intuito de estudar tendência temporal da infecção pelo T. cruzi. Durante o período de outubro de 1988 à abril de 1989, 1358 primo-doadores de sangue em seis dos oito ...