Argentina-Chagas disease

[Tonka]

http://www.lavozdecataratas.com/noticia_28408.html

Spanish to English translation

29/11/2011
Chagas disease
In 2010, Chagas disease spread through the North. Ober? last year joined other departments at risk. Experts from the Pan American Health Organization evaluated the work of provincial program

POSADAS. Last year, according to studies of Public Health, the number of people infected with Chagas disease increased slightly. Based on 5136 samples from children 6 to 14 years, 19 positive cases were detected, of which 15 belonged to the Capital area. Ober? also, Cerro Azul, San Javier and Candelaria areas remain at risk.
A group of experts from the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) and the Ministry of Health of the Nation Posadas arrived yesterday, to check the evolution of Chagas in Misiones. This is a mission for the exchange of information and monitoring of Chagas Provincial program.
"What is sought is essentially a clear view of the state of transmission of Chagas disease. If you are active or control actions have been stopped. We have high expectations that at Missions is stopped, "predicted Dr. Robert Salvatella, PAHO representative.
For his part, Luis Yarz?bal, PAHO also recalled that "Chagas is a disease that is not eradicated, but it is can eliminate the transmission vector, which is what is expected of missions as they have been the provinces of Jujuy, La Pampa, Neuqu?n, Rio Black and Entre Rios. "
The register of children evaluated for infection by Trypanosoma cruzi (the parasite that causes Chagas disease) in Misiones department during the period 2008 to 2011 were analyzed 14,945 children, of whom 65 were positive, especially in the Capital (21 cases), Ober? (12), Apostles (11) and German ( 10).
"In Misiones, Chagas disease and impact focuses on a region of central departments and eventually some of the south. The most important focus is on Ober?, Cerro Azul, Alem and Candelaria, where historically there was Chagas. We lack complete the entire report with the north of the province where there really is no case history, "said Jorge Deschutter, Undersecretary for Primary Care. More information According to PAHO, Misiones is located in the provinces in moderate risk vector transmission, along with Catamarca, Corrientes, La Rioja, Santa Fe, San Luis, Salta, and Tucuman, which show a re-infestation rate of more than 5 percent in some departments, and inadequate surveillance coverage in some cases . Serologic studies of the Ministry of Public Health of Misiones in school children show that in 2008 reached 3611 cases studied, of whom 21 were positive. The following year, a total of 3754 children, 11 cases were detected positive, with Ober? the town with more infected. On the parasite serology in pregnant women, based on births in the public sector last year from 9.00 pregnant studied, 59 were positive. As for the case studies or congenital Chagas infection connatal, in 2010, 3 infants were found positive and this year, of 25 studies of infants born to mothers chagasic infection was detected in an infant. The mission will be in Mission Evaluators today, at which noted with documentation and undertake a field work to determine "advances in Misiones Province of Chagas Program." yesterday visited the Maternity Hospital Service Samica Ober? and toured the rural areas of several municipalities of the South Centre and in-situ to assess the work takes place there and the absence of the kissing bug, Chagas vector transmitter. The assessment will conclude today with the delegation will visit the service Maternity Hospital Ram?n Madariaga and the Blood Bank. The PAHO representative said that after this " monitoring will determine the level of certification that it is up to missions in relation to the transmission of Chagas disease. " danger areas in February this year, the provincial health portfolio publicly warned about the presence in rural areas of the Southern Zone of insect vectors the disease can be combated and eliminated by the homeowners. In turn, last year the highest number of cases of Chagas disease in the province was recorded in the Central zone, so from Public Health training reinforced professionals and disease prevention. Alberdi also in Cologne, in the insect proliferation in the area, the municipal authorities put on alert and sent people to analyze a sample of insects found in different parts of the district. The Mayor Juan Gonzalez, a medical doctor, said that in recent years in the medical center of the village also identified many cases of Chagas disease, but assumed that it was a congenital problem settled in the place. Territoriodigital The disease and its consequences is a disease caused by a parasite called Trypanosoma cruzi, which can live in blood and tissues of humans and animals and in the digestive tract of the insects that spread, kissing bugs or bugs. It can affect the heart or the digestive system of the people who suffer, causing varying degrees of disability or even death. The most common form of infection is through the bite of an infected bug or kissing bug (transfer vector). The kissing bug when it bites a person to feed on their blood, defecates and deposits these parasites in the skin. Scratching the bite, the person enters them into your body. Other routes of exposure, but rare is the transfusion of contaminated blood donors infected or congenital transmission.

[Tonka]

Re: Argentina-Chagas disease

http://www.misionesonline.net/noticias/01/12/2011/especialistas-evaluan-la-interrupcion-de-la-transmision-de-chagas-en-misiones-y-otras-provincias

Spanish to English translation

Specialists assess the interruption of transmission of Chagas disease in Misiones and other provinces


The kissing bug, insect transmitter of Chagas disease
Throughout the week, a commission composed of representatives of the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), together with international and national experts conducted simultaneously in the provinces of Misiones, Santa Fe, Catamarca, La Rioja and San Luis assessment measures are being implemented to combat Chagas disease, in order to certify the progress of these jurisdictions to the interruption of transmission of the disease.


Updated Thursday December 1, 2011 13:30:00 PM

The head of the National Institute of Parasitology "Dr. Mario Fatala Chaben" under the Ministry of Health of the Nation, Sergio Sosa Estani , considered that "Argentina has requested the presence of external experts to assess the status of progress of the Chagas Disease Control in five provinces, aimed at the interruption of vectorial and transfusional transmission of Trypanosoma cruzi. "

Along with references of the National Chagas, national experts and technical equipment for control of Chagas local Estani Sosa explained that "the teams did field work that assessed the implementation of actions sustained vector surveillance and control to detect houses that have vinchucas responsiveness and provincial and local levels to carry out the elimination of vector ".

"They were also visited the provincial control of blood transfused, the maternity and neonatal services, which are where they carry out checks on congenital Chagas disease, and primary care health are important players when the detection and treatment of the disease in children, "said the official.

With regard to these assessments, the director of the Institute Chaben Fatala said "this is part of a regular process for countries in the region are implemented through control initiatives, and we as members of INCOSUR-Initiative Southern Cone for the control and elimination of Chagas disease in Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Paraguay and Uruguay, the test to see the progress of the action. "

The national official stressed the importance of external comments, as part of a good practice of the various procedures that are developed to evaluate the progress the action plan and its impact, as well as secondary prevention activities consisting of the diagnosis and early treatment of infected people.

"The provinces are evaluated jurisdictions that have had a steady progress on the reduction of the presence of kissing bugs and are presenting a decrease in indicators of the presence of the disease in children," said Sosa Estani, while adding that "this demonstrates the quality control processes of blood transfusion and increased coverage in the diagnosis of congenital Chagas disease and early access to treatment. "

Characteristics and extent of disease
Chagas is a disease caused by a parasite called Trypanosoma cruzi, which can live in blood and tissues of humans and animals and in the gut of some insects are known in Argentina as kissing bugs or bugs.

The most common form of infection is through the bite of the kissing bug or bugs infected with the Chagas parasite, once the kissing bug bites a person to feed on their blood, defecates and deposits these parasites in the skin, and when the person Scratching the bites into his body. Transmission can also occur congenitally from mother to child or through contaminated blood transfusions.

People who suffer from diseases carried in the heart or the digestive system causing varying degrees of disability or even death.

According to estimates by the World Health Organization (WHO), Chagas disease is one of the most expanded endemic in Latin America with about 10 million people living in the region, while in Argentina it is estimated that a million and half people have Chagas.

While Chagas disease is found in those parts of the country where kissing bugs, migration has led to increased infections in places where there is no presence of the vector, so Chagas disease exists throughout the country.