Toxoplasmosis among Saudi Female Students in Al-Ahssa, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia: Awareness and Risk Factors

Abstract

Background: Toxoplasmosis is a worldwide disease that severely affects the fetuses and immunocompromised patients and results in many critical and life threatening conditions. The present study aimed to evaluate the awareness of toxoplasmosis and its preventive behaviors among female students in King Faisal University in Al-Ahssa. Subjects and methods: A cross sectional study was conducted in April 2014 among female students in KFU. The data were collected by a questionnaire from 88 participants. Results: Results showed that 65.4% were not aware of toxoplasmosis, and only 28.2% were aware of its complications or risk factors. This study showed that some people are at risk to get toxoplasmosis as they do not wash their hands with water and soap before eating (48.8%), do not wash the fruits and vegetables with water and soap (78.2%), drink tank water (51.3%) and cat owners don't follow the proper measures for their cats. However, some people practice some of the preventive behaviors as they do not raise the cats (93.6%) and do not consume unpasteurized or unboiled milk (100%) or undercooked meat (92.3%). Conclusion: The current study proved the low awareness of toxoplasmosis which emphasized the need to educate the people in Al-Ahssa about the preventive methods, especially the pregnant women to prevent the severe complications of congenital infections.

Knowledge and attitude regarding toxoplasmosis among Jazan University female students

“…The inadequate knowledge about toxoplasmosis found in this study is consistent with the findings of other studies conducted in Saudi Arabia from Al-Ahsa and Dhahran,[1718] in the region[19] and the rest of the world. [202122] This study found that the knowledge of toxoplasmosis increases with age, which is in contrast with the findings of previous studies showing knowledge about toxoplasmosis is not associated with increase in age.…”

“…The questionnaire used in this study was developed in Arabic after review of the literature. [1718] The questions were designed to assess the knowledge, attitude and preventive practices regarding toxoplasmosis among the female students. The questionnaire was pilot tested on 20 female students to assess its clarity and validity, and subsequently, adjustments were made where necessary.…”

Detection of Toxoplasma gondii among Healthy Populations by Different Techniques in Erbil Province

“…Although cats are the definitive hosts that shed oocysts, statistically no significant difference was detected between persons who had contact with cats and those who had no contact with cats, in spite of high rate of infection was seen in persons that had contact with cats (25.7%) than those who had no contact with cats (24.2%) (Table 3), which might be due to the presence of many stray cats around the neighborhoods, this result is similar to studies done in Kirkuk by (Obaid, 2017), in Brazil by (Marques et al, 2008) and in Ethiopia by (Gelaye et al, 2015). In disagreement with our results was a study done by (Alrashada et al, 2016) in Saudi Arabia that detected a lower seropositivity in those who had contact with cats, and studies done by (Galván-Ramírez et al, 2010) in Mexico and by (Rahi and Jasim, 2011) in Kut city, that showed there was a relationship between the prevalence of the disease and contact with cats. These differences might be due to the fact that pets are more common in Mexico than in Erbil or Kirkuk and also differences in basic personal hygiene among the surveyed populations of Kut and Erbil city.…”

Nurses´ Expectations toward Toxoplasmosis during Pregnancy

“…Also, the results of the present studywas consistent with Toninato et al, (2014) who studied toxoplasmosis: an examination of knowledge among health professionals and pregnant women in a municipality of the State of Parana and stated that the health professionals (physicians and nurses) who worked directly with the pregnant women in this community had little knowledge about this zoonotic disease and complications. Additionally, the results of the present study was in accordance with Alrashada et al, (2016) who studied Toxoplasmosis among nurses in Al-Ahssa, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia: awareness and risk factors and demonstrated that there was low awareness about toxoplasmosis, danger and risk factors among nurses.…”