Carlier Y
Laboratoire de Parasitologie, Faculté de Médecine, ULB.
Bull Mem Acad R Med Belg. 2007;162(7-9):409-16; discussion 416-7.
Trypanosoma cruzi, the protozoan agent of Chagas disease can be transmitted from mother to foetus. The incidence of congenital infection is estimated to be at least 15,000 cases per year in Latin-America. Its incidence in the non endemic countries (U.S.A., Europe, Japan) is not known. Thanks to multidisciplinary studies performed in Bolivia, it has been possible to specify the epidemiologic and clinical features of congenital Chagas disease. The transplacental route, as well as the role of some parasitic (genotype and parasitic charge) or host factors (capacity of maternal and fetal/neonatal immune responses, particularly the generation of CD8T cells with cytotoxic and IFN-gamma-producing capacities) in mother-to-fetus transmission of infection and/or development of congenital Chagas disease, have been also studied. Altogether, these data have allowed the development of a strategy to control T. cruzi congenital infection, which has been validated by WHO and is applied in various Latin American countries.
克氏锥虫是恰加斯病的原生动物病原体，可由母亲传播给胎儿。据估计，拉丁美洲每年先天性感染的病例至少有15000例。其在非流行国家（美国、欧洲、日本）的发病率尚不清楚。多亏了在玻利维亚开展的多学科研究，才得以明确先天性恰加斯病的流行病学和临床特征。还研究了经胎盘传播途径，以及某些寄生虫因素（基因型和寄生虫负荷）或宿主因素（母体和胎儿/新生儿免疫反应能力，特别是具有细胞毒性和产生干扰素-γ能力的CD8T细胞的产生）在母婴传播感染和/或先天性恰加斯病发展中的作用。总之，这些数据促成了一项控制克氏锥虫先天性感染策略的制定，该策略已得到世界卫生组织的验证，并在拉丁美洲各国应用。
