Seroprevalence of Chagas infection in the donor population

PLoS Negl Trop Dis. 2012;6(7):e1771. doi: 10.1371/journal.pntd.0001771. Epub 2012 Jul 31.

Abstract

We retrospectively calculated the prevalence and epidemiologic characteristics of Chagas infection in the New York blood donor population over three years utilizing the New York Blood Center's database of the New York metropolitan area donor population. Seventy Trypanosoma cruzi positive donors were identified from among 876,614 donors over a 3-year period, giving an adjusted prevalence of 0.0083%, with 0.0080% in 2007, 0.0073% in 2008, and 0.0097% in 2009. When filtered only for self-described "Hispanic/Latino" donors, there were 52 Chagas positive donors in that 3-year period (among 105,122 self-described Hispanic donors) with an adjusted prevalence of 0.052%, with 0.055% in 2007, 0.047% in 2008, and 0.053% in 2009. In conclusion, we found a persistent population of patients with Chagas infection in the New York metropolitan area donor population. There was geographic localization of cases which aligned with Latin American immigration clusters.

MeSH terms

  • Adolescent
  • Adult
  • Aged
  • Blood Donors*
  • Chagas Disease / epidemiology*
  • Chagas Disease / pathology
  • Cluster Analysis
  • Ethnicity
  • Female
  • Humans
  • Male
  • Middle Aged
  • New York / epidemiology
  • Retrospective Studies
  • Seroepidemiologic Studies
  • Trypanosoma cruzi / isolation & purification
  • Young Adult

Grants and funding

The authors have no support or funding to report.