<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><p>Toxoplasmosis is an important infection caused by the single-celled parasite <italic>Toxoplasma gondii</italic>, which is a zoonotic parasite causing widespread human and animal diseases, mostly involving the central nervous system. Humans can acquire toxoplasmosis by ingestion of raw or undercooked meat containing <italic>T. gondii</italic> tissue cysts, ingestion of oocysts shed by infected felids via contaminated food or water, and by vertical transmission to the fetus through the placenta from the mother during pregnancy. The aim of the present study was to determine the seroprevalence of specific anti-<italic>T. gondii</italic> IgG and IgM antibodies using a large set of clinical diagnostic laboratory data obtained over a 14-year period. In total, 25 069 unique patients were included in the present study. The overall specific anti-<italic>T. gondii</italic> IgG prevalence were 36.3%, which was significantly (<italic>p</italic> &lt; 0.01) higher than IgM prevalence (2.4%). Mean age for IgG antibody-positive patients was 33.7 ± 12.2 years. A significant positive correlation (r = 0.99; <italic>p</italic> &lt; 0.01) was observed between age group and anti-<italic>T. gondii</italic> IgG antibody prevalence, which ranged from 4.2% to 66.7%. The most prevalent (69.9%; 95% CI 69.2–70.7) comorbidities of patients tested for presence of anti-<italic>T. gondii</italic> IgG and IgM antibodies were classified as factors affecting health status which includes also monitoring of normal pregnancy.</p></abstract>

Toxoplasmosis is an important infection caused by the single-celled parasite Toxoplasma gondii, which is a zoonotic parasite causing widespread human and animal diseases, mostly involving the central nervous system. Humans can acquire toxoplasmosis by ingestion of raw or undercooked meat containing T. gondii tissue cysts, ingestion of oocysts shed by infected felids via contaminated food or water, and by vertical transmission to the fetus through the placenta from the mother during pregnancy. The aim of the present study was to determine the seroprevalence of specific anti-T. gondii IgG and IgM antibodies using a large set of clinical diagnostic laboratory data obtained over a 14-year period. In total, 25 069 unique patients were included in the present study. The overall specific anti-T. gondii IgG prevalence were 36.3%, which was significantly (p < 0.01) higher than IgM prevalence (2.4%). Mean age for IgG antibody-positive patients was 33.7 ± 12.2 years. A significant positive correlation (r = 0.99; p < 0.01) was observed between age group and anti-T. gondii IgG antibody prevalence, which ranged from 4.2% to 66.7%. The most prevalent (69.9%; 95% CI 69.2–70.7) comorbidities of patients tested for presence of anti-T. gondii IgG and IgM antibodies were classified as factors affecting health status which includes also monitoring of normal pregnancy.

Retrospective Serological Evidence of High Exposure of Globally Relevant Zoonotic Parasite <italic>Toxoplasma Gondii</italic> in The Latvian Population

Institute of Food Safety, Animal Health and Environment “BIOR”

Department of Infectology and Dermatology

Proceedings of the Latvian Academy of Sciences. Section B. Natural, Exact, and Applied Sciences.

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 License.

Retrospective Serological Evidence of High Exposure of Globally Relevant Zoonotic Parasite  in The Latvian Population

Toxoplasmosis is an important infection caused by the single-celled parasite Toxoplasma gondii, which is a zoonotic parasite causing widespread human and...

Retrospective Serological Evidence of High Exposure of Globally Relevant Zoonotic Parasite Toxoplasma Gondii in The Latvian Population

Published Online: Apr 07, 2019

Page range: 146 - 151

Received: Nov 01, 2018

Accepted: Feb 20, 2019

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/prolas-2019-0023

Keywords
toxoplasmosis, large scale, seroprevalence, age, comorbidity, pregnancy

© 2019 Gunita Deksne et al., published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 License.

Retrospective Serological Evidence of High Exposure of Globally Relevant Zoonotic Parasite Toxoplasma Gondii in The Latvian Population

Published Online: Apr 07, 2019

Page range: 146 - 151

Received: Nov 01, 2018

Accepted: Feb 20, 2019

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/prolas-2019-0023

Keywordstoxoplasmosis, large scale, seroprevalence, age, comorbidity, pregnancy

© 2019 Gunita Deksne et al., published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 License.

Keywords
toxoplasmosis, large scale, seroprevalence, age, comorbidity, pregnancy