title: [Control of Chagas disease in blood banks in Colombia].
abstract: The screening programs for the Chagas disease agent, Trypanosoma cruzi, were examined in Colombian blood banks and, as a consequence, several procedural improvements in the blood bank network were recommended. Screening strategies and techniques were examined, as well as the action taken when seropositive donors were discovered. From a total of 180 blood banks in 33 departments, 103 banks in 20 departments answered the survey. The 103 banks collected 291, 105 units of blood, corresponding to 66.6% of all units collected in the country in 1997. Of these blood units, 99.6% were screened for Chagas trypanosomes; 3,321 (1.2%) of 287,048 were found positive for anti-T. cruzi. The data were grouped by department; geographical differences for seroprevalence rates varied markedly between 0% and 12.6%. The most commonly used serological technique was ELISA, but only 33.2% of the positive samples for anti-T. cruzi underwent further confirmatory testing, mainly through indirect immunofluorescent test. Most (95.1%) of the blood banks used basic, internal quality control procedures, and 73.8% sent positive samples to other laboratories for external quality control.
authors.affiliation: Latin American Centre for Health Research, Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, Liverpool, U.K.
authors.forename: Markus
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Behrend
authors.forename: Mauricio
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Beltrán
authors.forename: Marcos
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Restrepo
authors.forename: Axel
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Kroeger
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D000913:Antibodies, Protozoan / Q000097:blood*; D015415:Biomarkers / Q000097:blood; D001771:Blood Banks / Q000592:standards; D014355:Chagas Disease / Q000097:blood / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000517:prevention & control*; D003105:Colombia; D019538:Health Care Surveys; D006801:Humans; D011786:Quality Control; D016036:Seroepidemiologic Studies; D014349:Trypanosoma cruzi / Q000276:immunology*
chemical_list: D000913:Antibodies, Protozoan; D015415:Biomarkers