title: Update on seroprevalence of anti-Trypanosoma cruzi antibodies among blood donors in northeast Mexico.
abstract: Chagas disease has become frequent in non-endemic areas, where it can be transmitted by blood transmission. Therefore, we explored seroprevalence of anti-Trypanosoma cruzi antibodies among blood donors at the Cardiology Hospital, Mexican Institute of Social Security at Monterrey, Nuevo León, by both an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay and indirect hemagglutination. Blood samples from 1,000 healthy blood donors were selected. A seropositivity of 2.8% was shown among the studied population, of which 2.59% (21/809) were inhabitants of Nuevo León, whereas 3.07% (2/65) and 3.96% (5/126) were from Coahuila and Tamaulipas, respectively. Our result is higher than that of a previous study from 1998, where a prevalence of 0.5% was reported. This once again corroborates the importance of installing a surveillance program to detect and prevent the transfusion of T. cruzi from asymptomatic blood donors in blood banks located in urban cities recognized as non-endemic.
authors.affiliation: Facultad de Ciencias Biológicas, Universidad Autónoma de Nuevo León, San Nicolás de los Garza, Nuevo León, Mexico. lgs12167@yahoo.com
authors.forename: Lucio
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Galavíz-Silva
authors.forename: Daniel P
authors.initials: DP
authors.lastname: Molina-Garza
authors.forename: Mario A
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: González-Santos
authors.forename: Roberto
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Mercado-Hernández
authors.forename: José Reyes
authors.initials: JR
authors.lastname: González-Galavíz
authors.forename: José Luis
authors.initials: JL
authors.lastname: Rosales-Encina
authors.forename: Zinnia J
authors.initials: ZJ
authors.lastname: Molina-Garza
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000818:Animals; D000913:Antibodies, Protozoan / Q000097:blood*; D001782:Blood Donors; D014355:Chagas Disease / Q000097:blood / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000517:prevention & control; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008800:Mexico / Q000453:epidemiology; D008875:Middle Aged; D016036:Seroepidemiologic Studies; D014349:Trypanosoma cruzi / Q000276:immunology*
chemical_list: D000913:Antibodies, Protozoan