Seroepidemiology of Toxoplasma gondii Infection among Healthy Blood Donors in Taiwan

Abstract

Toxoplasma gondii is an opportunistic, zoonotic pathogen with a worldwide distribution. There are large variations in the seroprevalence of T. gondii infection in different regions of the world. Although toxoplasmosis became a notifiable communicable disease in Taiwan in 2007, little is known about its epidemiology among the general population. This cross-sectional study aimed to survey the seroprevalence of T. gondii infection and its risk factors among healthy blood donors in Taiwan. Through collaborating with the Taiwan Blood Services Foundation, a total of 1,783 healthy blood donors from all six-branch blood service centers participated in this study. The blood samples were tested for the presence of T. gondii antibodies and DNA using enzyme immunoassays and real-time PCR, respectively. Structured questionnaires were used to gather information on risk factors for T. gondii infection. Of the 1,783 participants, 166 (9.3%) tested positive for anti-Toxoplasma IgG, while 5 (0.28%) tested positive for anti-Toxoplasma IgM. The five IgM positive donors had high avidity antibodies suggestive of past infection. No active parasitemia was detected by real-time PCR assays. Multivariate logistic regression showed that undercooked pork meat consumption (adjusted odds ratio [OR] = 2.9; 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.3–6.5), raw mussels consumption (adjusted OR = 5.3; 95% CI: 1.5–19.1), having a cat in the household (adjusted OR = 2.0; 95% CI: 1.2–3.2), a lower education level (adjusted OR = 1.6; 95% CI: 1.1–2.3), and donation place in eastern Taiwan (adjusted OR = 2.5; 95% CI: 1.6–3.9) were independent risk factors for Toxoplasma seropositivity. These findings provide information on the seroprevalence and epidemiology of T. gondii infection among healthy blood donors in Taiwan.

Seroprevalence, Seroconversion, and Risk Factors for Toxoplasmosis among Pregnant Women in Taipei, Taiwan

“…However, eating undercooked or frozen meat or drinking unboiled water are likely risk factors among pregnant women for contracting toxoplasmosis because risk factor analysis of data of the eight seropositive pregnant women showed that 62.5z (5/8) and 50.0z (4/8) of them had a history of eating undercooked or frozen meat, respectively, and 37.5z (3/8) of the participants had a history of drinking unboiled water. This hypothesis is largely supported by a large-scale seroepidemiological study on toxoplasmosis conducted in 2010 among healthy blood donors in Tiwan, indicating that the consumption of undercooked meat was an independent risk factor for Toxoplasma seropositivity (30).…”

Seroprevalence and molecular diagnosis of Toxoplasma gondii infection among blood donors in southern Iran

“…The rate of Toxoplasma infection in healthy blood donors varies in different areas of the world and this mainly depends on the rate of infection in the community [10][11][12][13][14][15]. In some areas, such as northeast Brazil, north India and Egypt, more than 50% of blood donors have been seropositive for Toxoplasma infection [11,14,16].…”

“…In some areas, such as northeast Brazil, north India and Egypt, more than 50% of blood donors have been seropositive for Toxoplasma infection [11,14,16]. Lower rate of infection in blood donors have been reported from Taiwan (9.3%), Thailand (9.6%), Mexico (7.4%) or Turkey (19.5%) [10,15,[17][18].…”

Toxoplasma Gondii Infection and Related Risk Factors Among Blood Donors in Northwest Iran

“…In addition, similar T. gonii seroprevalence studies on blood donors have been conducted in other countries such as Taiwan, India, and Mexico. The reported rates vary from 7.4% to 51.8% for IgG and 0.28% to 5% for IgM anti-T. gondii antibodies (12,(16)(17)(18). These differences may be due to sample size, mean age of the participants, geography, and sensitivity of detection methods.…”