Seroprevalence of Latent Toxoplasma gondii Infection among HIV-infected Pregnant Women in Bobo-Dioulasso, Burkina Faso

Abstract

The deficit of cellular immunity, as found in HIV infected individuals, may lead to the reactivation of latent Toxoplasma gondii cysts, with as consequence, the occurrence of toxoplasmosis and an eventual vertical transmission of the disease during pregnancy. The present study was designed for determining the occurrence of latent Toxoplasma gondii among HIV-infected pregnant women during the first trimester in Bobo-Dioulasso. Thus, 348 pregnant women aged from 17 to 47 years (average age of 6.64 ± 4.75 yaers) were enrolled. The specific anti-Toxoplasma gondii IgG and IgM antibodies were quantified from whole blood specimens using the high-sensitivity direct agglutination and the enzyme linked fluorescent assays, respectively, the IgG avidity test being used for the dating of the primary infection. The results revealed that the seroprevalence of Toxoplasma gondii latent infection was 34.7%. It was significantly higher in HIV-infected women compared with uninfected ones (68,7%; CI 95%: 43,6%-88,9%) versus (33,1%; CI 95%: 28, 2%-38,3%). In addition, all the occurrences of the high IgG avidity were closely linked with the presence of IgM. These results underlined the need for the clinical follow-up of the maternal HIV diseases including the toxoplasmosis during the pregnancy since; the newborns are still exposed to vertical transmission of Toxoplasma infection in endemic areas like Burkina Faso.

WITHDRAWN: Sero-epidemiology of Toxoplasma gondii and risk factors among pregnant women in Africa

“…The studies qualified for the review were conducted in 12 countries in Africa. Thirteen (36.1%) of these studies were from eastern Africa [19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31], 12 (33.3%) from western Africa [12,[32][33][34][35][36][37][38][39][40][41][42], 5 (13.9%) from northern Africa [43][44][45][46][47], five (13.9%) from central Africa [17,18,[48][49][50] and one (2.8%) were from southern Africa [11]. The overall number of study participants included in this meta-analysis was 10,701 and 4,242 pregnant women for IgG and IgM respectively.…”

SAG4 DNA and Peptide Vaccination Provides Partial Protection against T. gondii Infection in BALB/c Mice

“…In addition, toxoplasmosis is the most common cause of central nervous system symptoms ( Dubey et al, 2014 ). Additionally, women who acquire toxoplasmosis during pregnancy may lead to miscarriage and mental alteration ( Bamba et al, 2014 ). Moreover, the collected results from epidemiologic survey indicated the high T. gondii prevalence can cause a large number of economic losses ( Fajardo et al, 2013 ; Miao et al, 2013 ; Verin et al, 2013 ).…”

Seroepidemiology of toxoplasmosis in pregnant women and detection of infection acquired during pregnancy in Cotonou, Benin

“…Much more cautiously, the univariate analysis shows that some factors studied in the present survey reflect an association with the occurrence of T. gondii seropositivity at the threshold of significance, HIV seropositivity ( p = 0.05) and the occupation of the pregnant woman as an office worker ( p = 0.06). In similar studies conducted in Burkina Faso, HIV seropositivity strongly influences Toxoplasma seroprevalence in pregnant women [ 2 ], while professional occupation as an office worker is a new risk element recorded in our population and may be explained by the fact that some office workers sometimes eat poorly washed raw vegetables or food soiled by oocysts for lunch.…”