Update on Chagas disease in Venezuela--a review.
The present article reviews the status of Chagas disease in Venezuela based on the detection of Trypanosoma cruzi infections both in referred patients with clinical presumptive diagnosis (1988-2002) and in individuals sampled from rural localities representative of the different geographical regions of the country (1995-2002). In the former group from 306 individuals examined, 174 (56.8%) were seropositive to T. cruzi; 73 (42%) in the acute phase with 52 (71%) showing blood circulating parasites, and from these 38% were children under 10 years old. The other 101 (58%) showed chronic infection at different degrees of cardiac complication. In addition, serologic examination of 3835 individuals from rural areas revealed 11.7% seroprevalence. From these, 8.5% (38/448) were children aged from 0 to 10 years old. These figures suggest that Chagas disease may be re-emerging in Venezuela judging for the active transmission detected during the last decade. The success of the Venezuelan anti-chagasic campaign during the last 40 years is evaluated in the frame of the present results. The epidemiological situation is discussed and recommendation to consider Chagas disease as a national priority is given.
Añez
Néstor
N
Departamento de Biología, Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad de Los Andes, Mérida, 5101, Venezuela. nanes@ula.ve
Crisante
Gladys
G
Rojas
Agustina
A
D000208:Acute Disease; D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D017677:Age Distribution; D000368:Aged; D000818:Animals; D014355:Chagas Disease / Q000453:epidemiology*; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D002908:Chronic Disease; D019353:Endemic Diseases; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007303:Insect Vectors; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012424:Rural Population; D016036:Seroepidemiologic Studies; D014224:Triatoma; D014349:Trypanosoma cruzi; D014687:Venezuela / Q000453:epidemiology