Introduction:

Chagas disease is one of the main public health problems in Latin America. The deficiency in the training of health professionals is a factor that contributes to its persistence and hinders its prevention and control.

Objectives:

To assess the level of knowledge about the different aspects of Chagas disease, with which graduate complete the Nursing major in an endemic region with controlled vector transmission.

Methods:

A cross-sectional, descriptive study was carried out, using an anonymous and voluntary survey about different aspects of Chagas disease, conducted on 133 students of the last academic year at the School of Nursing of Santa Fe, Argentina, in 2015. We calculated the mean, the minimum and maximum values ​​for quantitative variables, and the absolute and relative frequencies for qualitative ones.

Results:

All students agreed to participate in the survey (133/133). The average age was 28 years. 83.5% were women and 16.5% were men. 82.7% identified the vectors and 100% knew the transmission way, 7.5% knew other transmission routes. 92.5% recognized the vector risk area, but they minimized the prevalence in the country and outside the vector risk area. Their knowledge about clinical aspects and treatment were 38.3% and 27.1%, respectively.

Conclusions:

Nursing students are trained to prevent vector-borne Chagas disease, but knowledge in other aspects must be strengthened to help control the endemic disease.

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