CAN ETIOLOGICAL TREATMENT OF YOUNG WOMEN INFECTED WITH Trypanosoma cruzi PREVENT CONGENITAL TRANSMISSION?

SOSA-ESTANI S, CURA EN, VELAZQUEZ V, YAMPOTIS C, SEGURA EL

Rosario, Argentina

Congreso; VIII Congreso Argentino de Protozoología y Enfermedades Parasitarias; 2009

Sociedad Argentina de Protozoología (SAP)

The objective of this study was to detect Trypanosoma cruzi infection in children born to women infected in chronic phase and treated with benznidazole at a young age (6 to 15 years old) in the north of Salta, Argentina. We evaluated the status of infection of 16 women, as well as of their 32 children older than nine months of age born during the 14 years of follow up. The rate of negativization in mothers after 14 years of treatment was: enzymatic immunoassay (EIA) 87.5%, EIA using F29 antigen 77.8%, indirect hemagglutination assay 57.1% and indirect immunofluorescence assay 43.7%. No xenodiagnose and 12.5 of Polimerase Chain Reaction were positives. No infected case was detected among the offspring of mothers treated before pregnancy. Our preliminaries results suggest that the specific treatment of young women could be helpful at the primary prevention level because it would prevent congenital T.cruzi transmission.