Division of primary care medicine, Department of community medicine, primary care and emergency medicine, Geneva University Hospitals and University of Geneva, Switzerland.
Euro Surveill. 2011 Sep 15;16(37):19963.
Chagas disease, endemic in Latin America, is an emerging health problem in Europe affecting an estimated 80,000 persons. Around 60,000 Latin American migrants live in Switzerland, and cases of Chagas disease have been reported since 1979. As of June 2011, 258 cases have been diagnosed, mostly adults in the indeterminate phase of the chronic stage of the disease. Vertical transmission has been identified and there is a high potential for blood- and organ-borne transmission in the absence of systematic screening. Major challenges include (i) raising awareness among migrants and healthcare professionals, (ii) developing national protocols for screening and treatment targeting high-risk groups such as pregnant woman, newborns, migrants from highly endemic areas (e.g. Bolivia), and immunocompromised migrants, (iii) preventing blood- and organ-borne transmission by appropriate screening strategies, (iv) taking into account the social vulnerability of individuals at risk in the design and implementation of public health programmes, and (v) facilitating contacts with the communities at risk through outreach programmes, for example in churches and cultural groups.
恰加斯病在拉丁美洲流行，在欧洲也是一个新出现的卫生问题，影响到约 8 万人。约有 6 万名拉丁美洲移民居住在瑞士，自 1979 年以来已经报告了恰加斯病病例。截至 2011 年 6 月，共诊断出 258 例病例，主要为慢性期不确定期的成年人。已经发现垂直传播，在没有系统筛查的情况下，血液和器官传播的可能性很高。主要挑战包括：(i) 提高移民和卫生保健专业人员的认识；(ii) 制定针对高危人群（如孕妇、新生儿、来自高度流行地区（如玻利维亚）的移民和免疫功能低下的移民）的筛查和治疗国家方案；(iii) 通过适当的筛查策略预防血液和器官传播；(iv) 在设计和实施公共卫生方案时，考虑到处于危险中的个人的社会脆弱性；(v) 通过外展方案（例如在教堂和文化团体中）促进与高危人群的联系。
