Serological study of toxoplasmosis in pregnant women in Jahrom city, 2018

Toxoplasmosis is one of the most common infectious diseases in the world caused by Toxoplasma gondii. Transmission of the parasite from mother to fetus during pregnancy, may lead to important clinical complications such as abortion or cerebral and ocular damages in neonatal. This study aimed to determine the prevalence of antibodies against T. gondii in the pregnant women in Jahrom.

In this cross-sectional study, blood samples were collected from 370 pregnant women who were in the first trimester of pregnancy. Data on socio-demographic characteristics of the participants were recorded simultaneously with sampling. Then, the sera were examined for the presence of IgG and IgM antibodies against T. gondii using the ELISA method. The results were statistically analyzed using SPSS v.16.

Anti-T. gondii IgG and IgM were detected in 109 (29.5%) and 2 (0.5%) pregnant women, respectively. There was no significant correlation between infection and age, education, place of residence, occupation, type of drinking water consumed, contact with cats, history of abortion, or history of abnormal birth (P> 0.05) but the association between infection and number of offspring was significant (P = 0.005).

According to the results, 70.5% of pregnant women had no anti-Toxoplasma antibody in the serum and they were not immune to Toxoplasma. Therefore, guidelines for the prevention of Toxoplasma infection should be incorporated into educational programs for the pregnant women.