Lack of evidence of seronegative infection in an endemic area of Chagas disease

ABSTRACT The diagnosis of Chagas disease is based on the detection of Trypanosoma cruzi (T. cruzi)-specific antibodies. Nonetheless, there is concern about the sensitivity of current serological assays due to reports of T. cruzi PCR positivity among seronegative individuals. The aim of this study was to evaluate if T. cruzi seronegative infections occur in endemic areas. We recruited 2,157 individuals that were identified as having Chagas disease in a public health system database of an endemic region in Brazil. All participants were interviewed and 2,091 had a sample collected for serological and PCR testing. From these, 149 (7.1%) had negative serological results. PCR was positive in 610 samples (31.4%) of the 1,942 seropositive samples but in none of the 149 samples from seronegative participants. True T. cruzi seronegative infections seem to be rare (95% CI 0-3.7) and should not be a concern for blood supply, which relies on antibody screening.

Bibliographic Details

Main Authors:	Oliveira,Léa Campos de, Lee,Tzong-Hae, Ferreira,Ariela Mota, Bierrenbach,Ana Luiza, Souza-Basqueira,Marcela de, Oliveira,Cláudia Di Lorenzo, Cardoso,Clareci Silva, Moreira,Carlos Henrique Valente, Oikawa,Marcio K., Ribeiro,Antonio Luiz P., Busch,Michael P, Sabino,Ester Cerdeira
Format:	Digital revista
Language:	English
Published:	Instituto de Medicina Tropical de São Paulo 2019
Online Access:	http://old.scielo.br/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0036-46652019005000602
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