Centro Nacional de Referencia de Parasitología, Instituto Nacional de Salud Publica, Guayaquil, Ecuador.
Department of Tropical Medicine and Vector-Borne and Infectious Disease Research Center, School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine, Tulane University, New Orleans, LA, USA.
Acta Parasitol. 2021 Sep;66(3):1059-1062. doi: 10.1007/s11686-021-00334-2. Epub 2021 Feb 9.
Chagas disease, caused by the protozoan parasite Trypanosoma cruzi, is a vector-borne disease with a major disease burden in the Americas, with over 6 million cases. There are about 200,000 cases in Ecuador, but the epidemiology of the disease is poorly understood, particularly in the Amazon region, making surveillance and control challenging.
We determined here the seroprevalence of T. cruzi antibodies in a cohort of 516 schoolchildren aged 5-15 years from Chontapunta parish, in the Napo province, Ecuador, using ELISA and indirect hemaglutination tests.
We detected a seroprevalence of 0.77% (95% confidence interval 0.31-1.97%), with some significant variation among the three studied communities.
These data provide evidence of the ongoing transmission of T. cruzi in this area, and support the need to strengthen epidemiological surveillance and patient care.
恰加斯病由原生动物寄生虫克氏锥虫引起，是一种虫媒病，在美洲有很大的疾病负担，超过 600 万例。厄瓜多尔约有 20 万例病例，但该病的流行病学情况了解甚少，特别是在亚马逊地区，这使得监测和控制具有挑战性。
我们使用 ELISA 和间接血凝试验，在此确定了来自厄瓜多尔纳波省孔塔蓬塔教区的 516 名 5-15 岁学童的 T. cruzi 抗体血清阳性率。
我们检测到的血清阳性率为 0.77%（95%置信区间 0.31-1.97%），在所研究的三个社区之间存在一些显著差异。
这些数据提供了在该地区 T. cruzi 持续传播的证据，并支持加强流行病学监测和患者护理的必要性。
