Romero Mario auteur aut IRD Postigo Jorge auteur aut IRD Schneider Dominique auteur aut IRD Chippaux Jean-Philippe auteur aut IRD Santalla J. A. auteur aut IRD Brutus Laurent auteur aut IRD text journalArticle eng text/pdf born digital access To demonstrate the feasibility of a house-to-house screening system used for congenital Chagas disease in rural areas based on an active search for pregnant women and newborns in their homes in addition to passive case detection in health facilities. Methods Exploratory phase conducted by the research team followed by an operational period coordinated by municipal health service. A blood sample was taken for serological and parasitological tests of Trypanosoma cruzi from pregnant women who were searching antenatal care or visited at home by field investigators. Infants born to T. cruzi-infected women were examined for infection at birth and again at 1 and 7 months of age. Results 64.5% of the pregnant women were infected. Congenital infection was diagnosed at birth in 4.0% (12/299) of the children born to seroreactive mothers. Twelve additional cases of infection (4%) were diagnosed in children between 1 and 7 months of age. Finally, 37% of the children were lost to follow-up in the exploratory phase and 53% during the operational phase (P = 0.002), significantly fewer than in most passive case detection studies. Conclusion Despite poorer outcomes after door-to-door screening activities have been transferred to the health system, a combined strategy based on active and passive case detection appeared to be efficient for identifying rural cases of congenital Chagas disease. specialized Chagas disease congenital epidemiology maternal health child health 052 16 5 562-569 2011 1360-2276 https://www.documentation.ird.fr/hor/fdi:010053491 10.1111/j.1365-3156.2011.02746.x 1360-2276 [F B010053491] https://www.documentation.ird.fr/hor/fdi:010053491 https://www.documentation.ird.fr/intranet/publi/2011/05/010053491.pdf Accès réservé (Intranet de l'IRD) IRD - Base Horizon / Pleins textes 2011-05-31 2017-08-23 fdi:010053491 fre