Chagas Disease: seroprevalence and effectiveness of antiparasitic treatment

Abstract

INTRODUCTION: Chagas disease is considered the most serious parasitosis in America, forgotten and neglected in the world, with a characteristic that has its maximum expression in the difficulties and limitations for its diagnosis and treatment. OBJECTIVE: To assess the status of seropositivity of Chagas disease in Mexico, in addition to monitoring the effectiveness of treatment in infected patients. MATERIAL AND METHODS: Systematic reviews were conducted, with searches in Crossref, Google Scholar, Scielo, PubMed and the inclusion of guides and manuals of related health programs was evaluated based on their titles, news and relevance. RESULTS: for seropositivity, the data coincide with 100% in the characterization of the risk factors, as well as in the evaluations in the Blood Transfusion Centers of the country, finding captive cases in each state that explain the persistence of the disease . When monitoring treatments and evidence of effectiveness, the following difficulties arise: prolonged duration and side effects, adding the lack of reliable healing criteria, with an effectiveness of 60-75% in acute cases and in 100% of acute congenital cases, and in chronic cases a variation of between 15 and 30 years was found. CONCLUSIONS: Although the achievements have been commendable in reducing rates, the territory has factors that allow the redistribution of the infection, the evidence on the effectiveness is scarce, there is no evidence of epidemiological follow-up of cases in Mexico with respect to healing indicator.

Keywords

• chagas disease
• seroprevalence
• treatment
• effectiveness
• seroconversion