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Memórias do Instituto Oswaldo Cruz
Fundação Oswaldo Cruz, Fiocruz
ISSN: 1678-8060 EISSN: 1678-8060
Vol. 110, No. 5, 2015, pp. 1-5
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Bioline Code: oc15077
Full paper language: English
Document type: Research Article
Document available free of charge
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Memórias do Instituto Oswaldo Cruz, Vol. 110, No. 5, 2015, pp. 1-5
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Urban Chagas disease in children and women in primary care centres in Buenos Aires, Argentina
Moscatelli, Guillermo; Berenstein, Ada; Tarlovsky, Ana; Siniawski, Susana; Biancardi, Miguel; Ballering, Griselda; Moroni, Samanta; Schwarcz, Marta; Hernández, Susana; García-Bournissen, Facundo; Cozzi, Andrés Espejo; Freilij, Héctor & Altcheh, Jaime
Abstract
The primary objective of this study was to estimate the prevalence of this disease in women of childbearing age and
children treated at health centres in underserviced areas of the city of Buenos Aires. Demographic and Chagas disease
status data were collected. Samples for Chagas disease serology were obtained on filter paper and the reactive results
were confirmed with conventional samples. A total of 1,786 subjects were screened and 73 positive screening results
were obtained: 17 were from children and 56 were from women. The Trypanosoma cruzi infection risk was greater in
those individuals who had relatives with Chagas disease, who remember seeing kissing bugs, who were of Bolivian nationality
or were born in the Argentine province of Santiago del Estero. The overall prevalence of Chagas disease was
4.08%. Due to migration, Chagas disease is currently predominantly urban. The observed prevalence requires health
programme activities that are aimed at urban children and their mothers. Most children were infected congenitally,
which reinforces the need for Chagas disease screening of all pregnant women and their babies in Argentina. The active
search for new cases is important because the appropriate treatment in children has a high cure rate.
Keywords
Trypanosoma cruzi; Chagas disease; congenital transmission; prevalence; epidemiology; treatment
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