Seroprevalence of Toxoplasma gondii infection among pregnant women in Cameroon

Abstract

Toxoplasmosis is caused by an intracellular protozoan, Toxoplasma gondii, which has a wide geographical distribution. The congenital form results in a gestational form that can present a temporary parasiteamia that will infect the fetus. For this reason early diagnosis in pregnancy is highly desirable, allowing prompt intervention in cases of infection. The aim of this study was to determine the seroprevalence of Toxoplasma gondii antibodies among pregnant women attending the Douala General Hospital. The study was carried out between March and July 2009, whereby 110 pregnant women were tested for IgG and IgM antibodies and information about eating habits and hygienic conditions was collected using a questionnaire. These women's ages ranged from 20–44 years old with an average of 29.9 years; the overall IgG and IgM seroprevalence was 70% and 2.73 % respectively. Seroprevalence was significantly high amongst women who ate raw vegetables (76.39%, P<0.05) and there was a significant trend towards a higher seroprevalence in women who did not have a good source of water (75.58%, P<0.05). This research showed that consumption of raw vegetables and poor quality drinking water are two risk factors associated with Toxoplasma gondii infection amongst pregnant women attending the Douala General Hospital in Cameroon.

Application of Binary Logistic Regression in Assessing Risk Factors Affecting the Prevalence of Toxoplasmosis

“…The practice of raw meat eating is quite common in Ethiopia. 67.9% seroprevalence for raw meat eaters from this study compares well with 73.3% seroprevalence for meat eaters in the Douala study of Cameroon [13]. There was however no significant association between toxoplasmosis and the habit of raw meat eating in a study by [20].…”

“…One of the risk factors was cat presence. 62.5% of those who lived with cats tested positive for toxoplasmosis, a figure quite lower than the 72.6% reported by [13] but higher than reported in [18] in a study involving Thai pregnant women. Other similar results were reported by [7,15,20].…”

“…87.5% of the farmers were seropositive possibly due to their constant contact with contaminated soil and failing to wash their hands before food consumption, this is higher than the 73.6% reported by [20]. About 72.5% of the patients with no access to tape water tested positive for toxoplasmosis compared to 75.58% who tested positive at Douala hospital in Cameroon [13].…”

Seroepidemiology of Toxoplasma gondii in domestic cattle, sheep, goats and pigs from São Tomé and Príncipe

“…The seroprevalence values observed are higher than the ones reported in countries geographically close to the DRSTP, such as Nigeria, with 32.0% (Ohiolei & Isaac, 2016), Gabon, with 56.0% (Mickoto et al, 2010), and Cameroon, with 70.0% (Njunda et al, 2011). In addition to the climatic variations, there are still sociocultural and dietary differences, which may explain such prevalence variations (Fan et al, 2006;Njunda et al, 2011;Rahimi et al, 2015;Wam et al, 2016). Access to food depends on family income.…”

Socio-demographic and Obstetric Variations of T. gondii and HIV-1 Co-infection among Pregnant Women in Cameroon

“…The prevalence of toxoplasmosis among pregnant women showed significant variation between continents and countries and ranges from 9 -92.5% [6,8,9]. In Cameroon, the prevalence ranges from 48.5 -70% [5,10]. This variation depends on social and cultural habits, geographic factors, individual's hygiene, route of transmission and the immune status [5,10,11].…”