[The use of 4 immunological exams for the determination of Chagas disease prevalence in streetsweepers of the City Sanitation Service in the Federal District].
Seropositivity for Trypanosoma cruzi infection was studied in 368 street-sweepers of the SLU, Federal District, Brazil, with the aid of haemaglutination, immunofluorescence and, also, a delayed-type skin test to the parasite T12E antigen. It showed 32.1%, 42.1% and 38.6% positive results, respectively for each assay. Among these, however, only 47% were positive with each of three exams performed. In addition, 19.7% were positive with two out of three exams performed. The remaining 33.3% sera yielded one positive result out of three exams employed and were submitted to the immunoblot assay. This analysis confirmed 3 cases (37.5%) positive by hemmaglutination, 3 (11.5%) positive by skin test, and 1 (3.7%) positive by immunofluorescence. At the end of the analysis, it was shown that 129 (35%) individuals yielded at least two positive assays and, therefore, they should be considered as T. cruzi-infected individuals.
Tinoco
D L
DL
Laboratório Multidisciplinar de Pesquisa em Doença de Chagas, Universidade de Brasília, DF.
Garcia
M P
MP
Lauria-Pires
L
L
Santana
J M
JM
Teixeira
A R
AR
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000818:Animals; D000913:Antibodies, Protozoan / Q000097:blood*; D001938:Brazil / Q000453:epidemiology; D014355:Chagas Disease / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000453:epidemiology; D006801:Humans; D007159:Immunologic Tests / Q000379:methods / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D016018:Least-Squares Analysis; D008875:Middle Aged; D015995:Prevalence; D012499:Sanitation; D016036:Seroepidemiologic Studies; D014349:Trypanosoma cruzi / Q000276:immunology*; D014505:Urban Population / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*
D000913:Antibodies, Protozoan