Journal of Community Medicine & Health Education
Open Access

Research Article

Chagas Disease: A Global Neglected Disease that Require Continuous Medical Education

¹Laboratory of Basic-Clinical Parasitology, Program of Cellular and Molecular Biology, Biomedical Science Institute, Faculty of Medicine, University of Chile, Chile

²School of Public Health, Faculty of Medicine, University of Chile, Chile

Corresponding Author:

Inés Zulantay
Professor of Parasitology
Laboratory of Basic-Clinical Parasitology
Program of Cellular and Molecular Biology
Biomedical Science Institute, Faculty of Medicine
University of Chile, PO Box 1440, Santiago 3, Chile
Tel: 56-2-29786753
Fax: 56-2-29786122
E-mail: izulanta@med.uchile.cl

Received Date: October 30, 2013; Accepted Date: November 26, 2013; Published Date: November 28, 2013

Citation: Apt W, Galafé S, Zulantay I, Yuhasz S, Urbina P, et al. (2013) Chagas Disease: A Global Neglected Disease that Require Continuous Medical Education. J Community Med Health Educ 4:260. doi: 10.4172/2161-0711.1000260

Copyright: © 2013 Apt W, et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

Objective: In endemic zones of Chagas disease the knowledge of the professional health teams is very important for the success of control of the zoonosis. For this reason, we want to evaluate the knowledge of the parasite diseases in health team before and after an educational intervention.
Methods: We selected 166 professional who were related which Chagas disease to who the BEII (before educational intervention inquiry) was applied. The questions related with epidemiological, basic, diagnostic, clinical, chemotherapeutic and preventive aspects, had different grades of complexity and stratification according to the professional competences. The approval criterion was 60% of corrected answers. The educational intervention was focused on self-learning by printed and digital interactive material. 30 days was the study period, after the time an AEII (after educational intervention inquiry) was applied.
Results: The approval of the BEII fluctuated between 11.6% to 28.89%, and the AEII fluctuated between 68.75% and 89.66% (p=0.0001). By profession, the percentage of approval of the BEII and AEII was 13.98% and 66.20% (paramedics); 14.29% to 85.71% (medical technicians); 19.35% and 83.87% (medical doctors); 27.27% and 90% (midwives); 41.18% and 100% (nurses), respectively (p=0,0001). The global percentage of approval before and after the educational intervention was 19.28% and 77.70%, respectively (chi2=107.27).
Conclusions: The members of the health team in endemic areas of Chile, don’t have the necessary knowledge on Chagas disease. An adequate educational intervention will allow the acquisition of new knowledge and revert a negative initial diagnosis. The teaching in this global parasitosis must be continuous. Teaching-learning of Chagas disease is not only important in countries where the disease is endemic, but also in no endemic countries where the disease exists through immigration.

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