Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item:
https://www.arca.fiocruz.br/handle/icict/30794
Type
ArticleCopyright
Open access
Sustainable Development Goals
03 Saúde e Bem-EstarCollections
- IOC - Artigos de Periódicos [12828]
Metadata
Show full item record
TREATMENT AND SEROCONVERSION IN A COHORT OF CHILDREN SUFFERING FROM RECENT CHRONIC CHAGAS INFECTION IN YORO, HONDURAS
Honduras
terapia medicamentosa
forma indeterminada
benzonidazol
Author
Affilliation
Médécins Sans Frontières-Spain. Barcelona, Spain.
Secretary of Health. Central Reference Laboratory for Chagas Disease and Leishmaniasis. Tegucigalpa, Honduras.
Médécins Sans Frontières-Spain. Barcelona, Spain.
Fundação Oswaldo Cruz. Instituto Oswaldo Cruz. Laboratório de Doenças Parasitarias - Medicina Tropical. Rio de Janeiro, RJ. Brasil.
Médécins Sans Frontières-Spain. Barcelona, Spain.
Médécins Sans Frontières-Spain. Barcelona, Spain.
Médécins Sans Frontières-Spain. Barcelona, Spain.
Médécins Sans Frontières-Spain. Barcelona, Spain.
Secretary of Health. National Chagas Disease Prevention and Control Program. Tegucigalpa, Honduras.
Secretary of Health. Central Reference Laboratory for Chagas Disease and Leishmaniasis. Tegucigalpa, Honduras.
Secretary of Health. Central Reference Laboratory for Chagas Disease and Leishmaniasis. Tegucigalpa, Honduras.
Médécins Sans Frontières-Spain. Barcelona, Spain.
Fundação Oswaldo Cruz. Instituto Oswaldo Cruz. Laboratório de Doenças Parasitarias - Medicina Tropical. Rio de Janeiro, RJ. Brasil.
Médécins Sans Frontières-Spain. Barcelona, Spain.
Médécins Sans Frontières-Spain. Barcelona, Spain.
Médécins Sans Frontières-Spain. Barcelona, Spain.
Médécins Sans Frontières-Spain. Barcelona, Spain.
Secretary of Health. National Chagas Disease Prevention and Control Program. Tegucigalpa, Honduras.
Secretary of Health. Central Reference Laboratory for Chagas Disease and Leishmaniasis. Tegucigalpa, Honduras.
Abstract
Between 1999-2002, Médécins Sans Frontières-Spain implemented a project seeking to determine the efficacy and safety of benznidazole in the treatment of recent chronic Chagas disease in a cohort of seropositive children in the Yoro Department, Honduras. A total of 24,471 children were screened for Trypanosoma cruzi IgG antibodies through conventional enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays (ELISA) on filter paper. Recombinant ELISA (0.93% seroprevalence) showed 256 initially reactive cases, including 232 confirmed positive cases. Of these, 231 individuals were treated with benznidazole (7.5 mg/kg/day) for 60 days and were followed with a strict weekly medical control and follow-up protocol. At the end of the project, 229 patients were examined by the Honduras Secretariat of Health for post-treatment serological assessments; 88.2% seroconverted after 18 months and 93.9% seroconverted after three years. No differences were found in the seroconversion rates according to age or sex. Most of the side effects of the treatment were minor. These results support the argument that in areas where T. cruzi I is predominant and in areas affected by T. cruzi II, when vector transmission has been interrupted, Chagas disease diagnosis and treatment are feasible, necessary and ethically indisputable.
Keywords in Portuguese
Doença de ChagasHonduras
terapia medicamentosa
forma indeterminada
benzonidazol
Share