TY - STAND
AU - Gómez I Prat J
AU - Ouaarab Essadek H
AU - Esperalba J
AU - Serrat FZ
AU - Claveria Guiu I
AU - Goterris L
AU - Zules-Oña R
AU - Choque E
AU - Pastoret C
AU - Ponce NC
AU - Santos JJ
AU - Pons JS
AU - Dehousse A
AU - Albajar-Viñas P
AU - Pumarola T
AU - Campins M
AU - Sulleiro E
AB - <jats:title>Abstract</jats:title>
        <jats:p>As a Neglected Tropical Disease associated to Latin America, Chagas Disease (CD) is little known in non-endemic territories of the Americas, Europe and Western Pacific, making its control challenging, with limited detection rates, healthcare access and consequent epidemiological silence. This is reinforced by its biomedical characteristics - it is usually asymptomatic - and the fact that it mostly affects people with low social and financial resources. Because CD is mainly a chronic infection, which principally causes a cardiomyopathy and can also cause a prothrombotic status, it increases the risk of contracting severe COVID-19.In order to get an accurate picture of CD and COVID-19 overlapping and co-infection, this operational research draws on community-based experience and participative-action-research components. It was conducted during the Bolivian elections in Barcelona on a representative sample of that community. The results show that 55% of the people interviewed had already undergone a previous <jats:italic>T. cruzi</jats:italic> infection screening - among which 81% were diagnosed in Catalonia and 19% in Bolivia. The prevalence of <jats:italic>T. cruzi</jats:italic> infection was 18.3% (with 3.3% of discordant results), the SARS-CoV-2<jats:bold> </jats:bold>22.3% and the coinfection rate, 6%. The benefits of an integrated approach for COVID-19 and CD were shown, since it only took an average of 25% of additional time per patient and undoubtedly empowered the patients about the co-infection, its detection and care. Finally, the rapid diagnostic test used for COVID-19 showed a sensitivity of 89.5%. This research addresses CD and its co-infection, through an innovative way, an opportunity of systematic integration, during the COVID-19 pandemic.</jats:p>
DO - 10.21203/rs.3.rs-783259/v1
LA - eng
N2 - <jats:title>Abstract</jats:title>
        <jats:p>As a Neglected Tropical Disease associated to Latin America, Chagas Disease (CD) is little known in non-endemic territories of the Americas, Europe and Western Pacific, making its control challenging, with limited detection rates, healthcare access and consequent epidemiological silence. This is reinforced by its biomedical characteristics - it is usually asymptomatic - and the fact that it mostly affects people with low social and financial resources. Because CD is mainly a chronic infection, which principally causes a cardiomyopathy and can also cause a prothrombotic status, it increases the risk of contracting severe COVID-19.In order to get an accurate picture of CD and COVID-19 overlapping and co-infection, this operational research draws on community-based experience and participative-action-research components. It was conducted during the Bolivian elections in Barcelona on a representative sample of that community. The results show that 55% of the people interviewed had already undergone a previous <jats:italic>T. cruzi</jats:italic> infection screening - among which 81% were diagnosed in Catalonia and 19% in Bolivia. The prevalence of <jats:italic>T. cruzi</jats:italic> infection was 18.3% (with 3.3% of discordant results), the SARS-CoV-2<jats:bold> </jats:bold>22.3% and the coinfection rate, 6%. The benefits of an integrated approach for COVID-19 and CD were shown, since it only took an average of 25% of additional time per patient and undoubtedly empowered the patients about the co-infection, its detection and care. Finally, the rapid diagnostic test used for COVID-19 showed a sensitivity of 89.5%. This research addresses CD and its co-infection, through an innovative way, an opportunity of systematic integration, during the COVID-19 pandemic.</jats:p>
PB - Research Square Platform LLC
PY - 2021
TI - COVID-19: An Opportunity of Systematic Integration for Chagas Disease. Example of A Community-Based Approach within the Bolivian Population in Barcelona
UR - https://assets.researchsquare.com/files/rs-783259/v1/ff455e78-8f3b-480f-8039-c98305f96d87.pdf?c=1631888052
ER -