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Congenital toxoplasmosis is a zoonotic protozoan infection caused by the intracellular coccidian (phylum Apicomplexa) Toxoplasma gondii (T. gondii), which has a worldwide distribution. All warmis affected. The organism is transmitted transplacentally; following initial maternal infection, vertical transmission occurs from an infected pregnant mother to her fetus, mostly in the third trimester of pregnancy. The severity of fetal infection is determined by the pregnancy stage and whether the infected mother had received an efficient treatment in the early gestational period or not.A better prognosis is expected for children whose mothers were treated with anti-Toxoplasma medications. Some factors favor infection transmission and progress of congenital toxoplasmosis as the parasite genotype, the immune status of the mother and the fetal or neonatal ability to develop an immune response against Toxoplasma. Possible outcomes of fetal infection include abortion, intrauterine growth retardation, jaundice, hepatosplenomegaly or intrauterine fetal death. Nervous system complications like intracranial calcifications or hydrocephalus as well as retinochoroiditis are all possible consequences. Commonly, there are no specific symptoms at birth and complications may appear at an older age. Congenital toxoplasmosis is treated by spiramycin in pregnant women, while, drugs were used during late gestation to benefit infected fetus and are also used to treat the newborn after birth.

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There are various limitations on the efficacy of anticryptosporidal drugs with a critical need to have better alternatives. This study evaluated the effect of Lactobacillus acidophilus (L. acidophilus), a probiotic and chitosan, a natural polysaccharide as compared to azithromycin (AZT), as single therapy and in combination in treatment of cryptosporidiosis on infected neonatal mice.The three therapeutics individually showed significant decrease in Cryptosporidium oocysts shedding compared to control (P <0.001). However, L. acidophilus caused a higher reduction (91.07%) compared to both AZT (83.19%) and chitosan (65.61%). Also, they reduced the oocysts numbers detected in the intestine, resolved totally the neutrophilic activity, without affecting the intestinal inflammation, but caused liver inflammation improvement. AZT/L. acidophilus combination caused highest reduction in oocysts shedding (93.44%), followed by chitosan/L. acidophilus combination (92.76%). These results represented a significant improvement compared to AZT single therapy (P-values 0.012 & 0.024 respectively) or chitosan single therapy (P <0.001 for both combinations). Besides, all therapeutic combinations removed any apparent parasite in the intestine and halted acute neutrophilic activity. Intestinal inflammation totally disappeared with chitosan/L. acidophilus combination. Liver inflammations improved with drug combinations, but did not resolve totally as mostly observed with single therapy.

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