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Volume 15, Number 4—April 2009
Letter

Chagasic Cardiomyopathy in Immigrants from Latin America to Spain

Ana Pérez de Ayala, José-Antonio Pérez-Molina, Francesca F. Norman, and Rogelio López-VélezComments to Author 
Author affiliations: Ramón y Cajal Hospital, Madrid, Spain

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Table

Immigrants in Spain from Chagas disease–endemic countries in South America potentially infected with Trypanosoma cruzi, 1993–2002*

Characteristic No. immigrants, 2007† Seroprevalence in blood donors, %‡ Potential no. infected immigrants§
Country
Ecuador 420,110 0.1–0.2 420–840
Colombia 280,705 0.1–1.2 280–3,368
Bolivia 239,942 9.9–45.4 23,754–108,933
Argentina 145,315 4.4–5.5 6,393–7,992
Peru 120,272 0.1–0.2 120–240
Brazil 115,390 0.6–0.7 692–807
Venezuela 57,679 0.6–1.3 346–749
Paraguay 66,710 2.8–4.7 1,615–3,135
Chile 45,515 0.4–1.2 182–546
Uruguay
 49,970
 0.4–0.6
 199–299
Total 1,541,608 36,567–122,232
No. adults¶
 1,236,369
29,485–98,030
Estimated no. chagasic cardiomyopathies 5,897–29,409

*Infection determined on the basis of seroprevalence data from blood donors.
†Data obtained from the Instituto Nacional de Estadística (5).
‡Data obtained from Schmunis and Cruz (2).
§Calculated by applying seroprevalence data for blood donors in countries endemic for Chagas disease to no. immigrants from each of these countries living in Spain.
¶A correction factor for age was applied (80.2% of immigrants in Spain are adults).

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References
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