Update on Chagas disease in Venezuela: a review

Abstract

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)(1989)(1990)(1991)(1992)(1993)(1994)(1995)(1996)(1997)(1998)(1999)(2000)(2001)(2002) and in individuals sampled from rural localities representative of the different geographical regions of the country (1995)(1996)(1997)(1998)(1999)(2000)(2001)(2002)

Seroprevalencia de la infección por Trypanosoma cruzi en la población rural del estado Sucre, Venezuela

“…La seroprevalencia de la infección para T. cruzi en esta área geográfica fue de 3,12%, la cual es baja cuando se compara con los resultados obtenidos en el occidente del país, con una seroprevalencia general en Venezuela de un 11%, en 4.000 muestras analizadas en 75 localidades endémicas de 10 estados del territorio nacional 15 . Mientras que en otros trabajos realizados en el oriente del país en localidades de los estados Sucre, Anzoátegui, Monagas y Bolívar las seroprevalencias varían de 0 a 9% 7,16,17,18,19 .…”

Chagas disease in Andean countries

“…A recent review of the epidemiological situation regarding Chagas disease in Venezuela (Añez et al 2004), based on detecting T. cruzi infection in patients referred with a presumptive diagnosis of Chagas disease (1988)(1989)(1990)(1991)(1992)(1993)(1994)(1995)(1996)(1997)(1998)(1999)(2000)(2001)(2002) and samples of sera from inhabitants of rural areas representative of the country' different geographical regions, revealed that 56.8% of all individuals in the first group (174) were seropositive, 42% (73) were in the disease's acute phase (38% of them being children aged less than 10). Serological diagnosis carried out on 3835 inhabitants from rural areas revealed 11.7% seroprevalence.…”

The social determinants of Chagas disease and the transformations of Latin America

“…The campaign had been initiated at the end of the Second World War and a decade later the government of Venezuela had managed to declare the eradication of malaria in a vast territory, but it maintained personnel and human resources that it could not waste, the program for the control of Chagas disease was founded, and those resources fed it for several years until new outbreaks of malaria appear first at the beginning of the 1980s, and then of hemorrhagic dengue fever at the beginning of the 1990s. Starting from this, the Chagas program lost resources and relevancy until it almost disappeared, but not because the epidemiological situation had notably improved, but because competition from other diseases detracted from its importance (Añez et al 2004). Something similar, although in different magnitudes, occurred in several countries and still marks the current instability.…”