Abstract

SILVA, Vera Lúcia Carvalho da  and  LUNA, Expedito José de Albuquerque. Trypanosoma cruzi infection prevalence among blood donors in the Brazilian Coordinating Blood Centers in 2007. Epidemiol. Serv. Saúde [online]. 2013, vol.22, n.1, pp.103-110. ISSN 1679-4974.  http://dx.doi.org/10.5123/S1679-49742013000100011.

OBJETIVE: To assess T. cruzi infection prevalence among blood donors, to analyze the Brazilian hemotherapy network and its compliance with safety standards in 2007. METHODS: descriptive study using the Brazilian health regulatory agency (ANVISA) technical regulations for hemotherapy as a reference. A questionnaire was also applied to Brazil's Coordinating Blood Centers. RESULTS: 84% of the Coordinating Blood Centers answered the questionnaire. In these Blood Centers3,251,361 individuals donated blood, of whom 0.04% were excluded after clinical screening forpresumed T. cruzi infection risk. 2,726,668 serological tests for T. cruzi were carried out, of which 5,432 (0.2%) were positive and 3,065 (0.11%) presented inconclusive results. CONCLUSION: A limitation of this study was thatfive of the Coordinating Blood Centers did not answer the questionnaire. The data indicate low T. cruzi infection prevalence among blood donors and suggest compliance with the technical regulations defined by ANVISA for blood safety.

Keywords : Chagas disease; Blood Transfusion; Blood Safety; Trypanosoma cruzi; Epidemiology Descriptive.

        · abstract in Portuguese     · text in Portuguese     · Portuguese ( pdf )