Investigating the Prevalence of Toxoplasmosis in Iranian Pregnant Women: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Toxoplasmosis is an infectious disease shared between humans and animals which occur as a result of infection with the intracellular parasite called toxoplasma Gondii. Toxoplasmosis in pregnant women, can lead to miscarriage or congenital abnormalities in the fetus. The congenital toxoplasmosis occurs when the mother is infected for the first time during pregnancy. This study aims to investigate the prevalence of serum anti-Toxoplasma antibodies in Iranian pregnant women.
Required data were collected by searching Googlescholar, Irandoc, Magiran Pubmed, SID, Embase, Cochrane, and ISI databases without any time limitation. Then, 28 articles were selected among 112 collected articles and considered in the Meta-Analysis and their data were analyzed using Meta-Analysis and random effects model. Heterogeneity of the study was assessed using the I2 index. Also, data were analyzed using R and STATA(Ver11.2) software.
Findings: With a sample size of 12818, the overall prevalence of anti-Toxoplasma antibodies was calculated equal to 34.2% (CI 95%: 23-45.3), the prevalence of IgG antibody was 34.9% (CI 95%: 31.2-38.7), and the prevalence of IgM antibody was 5.7% (CI 95%: 3.6-7.8).
Discussion & Our findings suggested that the prevalence of Toxoplasma infection among pregnant women in Iran is at an average level. Therefore, considering the high cost of serologic screening method, it is recommended to improve public and especially women awareness in the period before pregnancy through development and extension of health programs in order to prevent the infection in pregnant women or timely treatment of infected infants.