Seroepidemiology of human Toxoplasma gondii infection in China

Abstract

BackgroundToxoplasmosis is an important zoonotic parasitic disease worldwide. In immune competent individuals, Toxoplasma gondii preferentially infects tissues of central nervous systems, which might be an adding factor of certain psychiatric disorders. Congenital transmission of T. gondii during pregnancy has been regarded as a risk factor for the health of newborn infants. While in immune-compromised individuals, the parasite can cause life-threatening infections. This study aims to investigate the prevalence of T. gondii infection among clinically healthy individuals and patients with psychiatric disorders in China and to identify the potential risk factors related to the vulnerability of infection in the population.MethodsSerum samples from 2634 healthy individuals and 547 patients with certain psychiatric disorders in Changchun and Daqing in the northeast, and in Shanghai in the south of China were examined respectively for the levels of anti-T. gondii IgG by indirect ELISA and a direct agglutination assay. Prevalence of T. gondii infection in the Chinese population in respect of gender, age, residence and health status was systematically analyzed.ResultsThe overall anti-T. gondii IgG prevalence in the study population was 12.3%. In the clinically healthy population 12.5% was sero-positive and in the group with psychiatric disorders 11.3% of these patients were positive with anti-T. gondii IgG. A significant difference (P = 0.004) was found between male and female in the healthy population, the seroprevalence was 10.5% in men versus 14.3% in women. Furthermore, the difference of T. gondii infection rate between male and female in the 20-19 year's group was more obvious, with 6.4% in male population and 14.6% in female population.ConclusionA significant higher prevalence of T. gondii infection was observed in female in the clinically healthy population. No correlation was found between T. gondii infection and psychiatric disorders in this study. Results suggest that women are more exposed to T. gondii infection than men in China. The data argue for deeper investigations for the potential risk factors that threat the female populations.

Epidemiologic aspects of toxoplasmosis and evaluation of its seroprevalence in pregnant women

“…The comparison of the seropositivity of the pregnant women in Divinópolis with the prevalence of toxoplasmosis in other countries showed that the number of cases found in this study is twice that diagnosed in the Palestine (27.9%) 6 , 4 times higher than in China (12.3%) 2 , and also higher than in Venezuela (33%) 1 . In contrast, the numbers found were similar to the prevalence found in rural populations of France (47%) 4 , Albania (48.6%) 5 , and rural (57.6%) and urban (46.5%) areas of Egypt 6 .…”

Sero-epidemiology and risk factors for Toxoplasma gondii among pregnant women in Arab and African countries

“…The seroprevalence of T. gondii among pregnant women in Africa ranges from 25 to 92.5 % (Torgerson and Mastroiacovo 2013), which is very high compared to the seroprevalence in Arab countries and much higher compared to the U.K. (6-17 %), France (50-60 %), North America (10-25 %), and Asia (10-60 %), but comparable to countries in South America (45-80 %) (Al-Nakib et al 1983, Jones et al 2007Dromigny et al 1996;Pal et al 1996;Baril et al 1999;Nash et al 2005;Dubey and Jones 2008;Rosso et al 2008;Fernandes et al 2009;Sroka et al 2010;Xiao et al 2010). Worldwide, about 1,90,100 cases of congenital toxoplasmosis are reported every year.…”

Knowledge, Attitude and Practice of Community Towards Zoonotic Importance of <i>Toxoplasma</i> Infection in Central Afar Region, North East Ethiopia

“…T. gondii cause Toxoplasmosis which is an important zoonotic disease and responsible for major economic losses in all classes of livestock through abortion, stillbirth and neonatal losses [8,[9][10].Approximately one-third of the human world's population is infected by T. gondii [11,7].…”