# name
Epidemiology of congenital Chagas disease 6 years after
                implementation of a public health surveillance system,
                Catalonia, 2010 to 2015

# metadata.dc.contributor.author[].value
Working Group Of Congenital Chagas Disease In Catalonia

# metadata.dc.description.abstract[].value
Background: Chagas disease is endemic in Latin
America and affects 8 million people worldwide. In
2010, Catalonia introduced systematic public health
surveillance to detect and treat congenital Chagas disease. Aim: The objective was to evaluate the health
outcomes of the congenital Chagas disease screening
programme during the first 6 years (2010–2015) after
its introduction in Catalonia. Methods: In a surveillance
system, we screened pregnant women and newborns
and other children of positive mothers, and treated
Chagas-positive newborns and children. Diagnosis
was confirmed for pregnant women and children with
two positive serological tests and for newborns with
microhaematocrit and/or PCR at birth or serology at
age 9 months. Results: From 2010 to 2015, the estimated screening coverage rate increased from 68.4%
to 88.6%. In this period, 33,469 pregnant women were
tested for  Trypanosoma cruzi and 937 positive cases
were diagnosed. The overall prevalence was 2.8 cases
per 100 pregnancies per year (15.8 in Bolivian women).
We followed 82.8% of newborns until serological testing at age 9–12 months and 28 were diagnosed with
Chagas disease (congenital transmission rate: 4.17%).
Of 518 siblings, 178 (34.3%) were tested and 14 (7.8%)
were positive for  T. cruzi. Having other children with
Chagas disease and the heart clinical form of Chagas
disease were maternal risk factors associated with
congenital T. cruzi infection (p<0.05). Conclusion: The
increased screening coverage rate indicates consolidation of the programme in Catalonia. The rate of Chagas
disease congenital transmission in Catalonia is in
accordance with the range in non-endemic countries.

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European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control

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Eurosurveillance, 2019, vol. 24, num. 26

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Articles publicats en revistes (Biologia, Sanitat i Medi Ambient)

# metadata.dc.title[].value
Epidemiology of congenital Chagas disease 6 years after
                implementation of a public health surveillance system,
                Catalonia, 2010 to 2015