Update on Chagas disease in Venezuela -: A review

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 (1988-2002) and in individuals sampled from rural localities representative of the different geographical regions of the country (1995-2002). In the former group from 306 individuals examined, 174 (56.80 %) were seropositive to T. cruzi; 73 (42 %) in the acute phase with 52 (71 %) showing blood circulating parasites, and from these 38 % were children under 10 years old. The other 101 (58 %) showed chronic infection at different degrees of cardiac complication. In addition. serologic examination of 3835 individuals from rural areas revealed 11.7 % seroprevalence. From these, 8.5 % (381448) were children teed from 0 to 10 years old. These figures suggest that Chagas disease may be re-emerging in Venezuela judging or I active transmission detected during the last decade. The success of the Venezuelan anti-chagasic campaign during the last 40 years is evaluated in the frame of the present results. The epidemiological situation is discussed and recommendation to consider Chagas disease as a national priority is given.