Introduction: Chagas' disease is endemic in Central and South America and is mainly transmitted through blood transfusion, organ transplant and congenital infection in our Spanish environment. It is important to know the prevalence of anti-T.cruzi antibodies in people from the endemic areas who are now living in our country, due to possible transmission during the chronic, asymptomatic period. Methods: Analysis of 432 sera collected from immigrants between May and August 2001 using an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA), a particle gel immuno assay (IP) and an indirect immunofluorescence assay (IFA) for T.cruzi. In order to exclude cross-reaction, the presence of Leishmania spp. and Treponema pallidum antibodies was also tested. Results: 30 samples (6.9%) were positive with the ELISA and 16 (53.4%) of them also reacted to IP and IFA. All except one of the sera which were positive through the three techniques had antibodies to L. infantum and one of them to T. pallidum, Discussion: 3.7% of all the sera analyzed were positive for the three techniques, a finding that correlates with results from other studies. Most of them were from women and from immigrants from Bolivia, the country with the highest prevalence of this disease. Laboratory diagnosis is limited by the abscence of a gold standard, the presence of cross-reactivity with other parasites and the fact that there is no commercially available confirmatory assay. Vector erradication and interrupting any pathway of transmission is the main approach to combating the disease's endemicity.

Prevalence immigrants Trypanosoma cruzi

blood sampling controlled study congenital infection enzyme linked immunosorbent assay Treponema pallidum antibody Chagas Disease Leishmania infantum Article immunoassay human blood transfusion graft rejection