Sero-epidemiology of Toxoplasma Infection in PregnantWomen Referred to Al Zahra Hospital in Tabriz

Immunity to Toxoplasma gondii infection is known to be a critical point for women during pregnancy. Non immune pregnant women may at risk to be infected with the parasite. The par-asite can be transmitted via placenta and causes adverse effects in fetus. The main objective of the present work was to study sero-epidemiology of Toxopla-sma infection in pregnant women refer-red to Al Zahra hospital in Tabriz. Totally 300 blood samples were collected from 18-35 years pregnant women referred to Al-Zahra hospital in Tabriz during one year. The sera were tested for IgG and IgM titration with ELISA kits. In addition، demographic cha-racteristics of the women were obtained through appropriate questionnaires. Positive IgG and IgM titers were identified in the sera of 26. 33% and 0. 33% of the pregnant women، res-pectively. The higher frequency of positive titers was associated with older age. In addition، 97. 46% of the women with positive titer had a history of contact with cats. Discussion & Regarding the prevalence rate of 73. 33% in non-imm-une pregnant women in Tabriz، the preventive measurements in nutrition and contact with cats should be cons-idered by the women. We recommend the sera of the pregnant women should be monitored for Toxoplasma infection at least once a year، particularly during the first trimesters of pregnancy.