Seroprevalence of Anti-Toxoplasma IgG and IgM among Pregnant Women of Shush County, Southwest of Iran

Abstract

Background: Toxoplasma gondii is an obligate intracellular parasite that causes toxoplasmosis. T. gondii can cause serious pathological effects in the fetus of infected women. Objectives: The aim of this study was to investigate the seroprevalence of anti-Toxoplasma IgG and IgM among pregnant women of Shush county, southwest of Iran. Methods: This descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted in 276 pregnant women. IgG and IgM antibodies of T. gondii were measured by the Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) test. SPSS version 21 statistical software was used for data analysis and Chi-square test for significant differences. Results: Of 276 women, 85 (30.8%) and 2 (0.7%) were positive for IgG and IgM, respectively. Of 146 urban women, 43 (29.5%) were positive for IgG and of 130 rural women, 42 (32.3%) were positive for IgG. There was no significant difference between rural and urban women for IgG antibody (P > 0.05). Also, 2 (1.4%) out of 146 urban women were positive for IgM. All of the 130 rural women were negative for IgM. No significant difference was found between rural and urban women for IgM antibody (P > 0.05). Conclusions:The findings indicated there is a relatively high prevalence of T. gondii in the study pregnant women. Therefore, evaluation of T. gondii before marriage and pregnancy is important for women and the health authorities of Shush County must pay more attention to control and prevention of the transmission of the parasite to individuals.

Use of immunological methods to the detection of toxoplasmosis and heat shock protein HSP70 in men

“…Toxoplasmosis is a contagious disease that spreads all over the world, it's a serious disease common to humans and animals (Zoonotic disease) caused by a parasite known as Toxoplasma gondii, it's obligate intracellular parasite and has the ability to infect various tissues in many mammals and birds (Al-abodi 2018a, b;Al-Ammash et al 2018), the infection occurs to humans due to eating not well-cooked meat or foods contaminated with egg cysts, drinking contaminated unpasteurized milk with tachyzoites, also dealing with soil contain feces of infected cats, addition the infection occurs in other transmission methods example blood transfusion or organ transplantation (Torrey and Yolken 2013), Cats and all species belonging to a family Felidae are the final hosts of the parasite, whereas the intermediate hosts include species belonging to the class primates as human, the importance of human infection lies in the occurrence of severe cases the symptoms appear on the patient, including fever, tremors, and lymphatic dysfunction hepatitis and encephalitis that caused birth defects (Liesenfeld et al 2001). Transplantation this parasite from the infected mother to the fetus during the placenta considered the most serious because it causes Congenital malformation of the fetus (Fallahizadeh et al 2018), the parasite can be passed through sexual contact in warmblooded animals such as sheep, dogs and rats, but its transmission in humans has not been established yet (Wallon and Peron 2018), the diagnosis of this disease depend on examination the body fluids by serological, biological and molecular methods (Singh et al 2014;Alabodi 2017).…”