Prevalence and risk factors for human toxoplasmosis in a rural community

Toxoplasma gondii infection may lead to important pathological questions, especially in rural areas, where several sources of infection exist. Therefore, it is important to determine risk factors in order to establish adequate prophylactic measures. The present study aimed to assess the prevalence a...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of Venomous Animals and Toxins including Tropical Diseases
Main Authors: JM Marques, DV da Silva, NAB Correia, G Velásquez, RC da Silva, H Langoni, AV da Silva
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:English
Published: SciELO 2008
Subjects:
Toxoplasma gondii
prevalence
risk factors
rural community
Arctic medicine. Tropical medicine
RC955-962
Toxicology. Poisons
RA1190-1270
Zoology
QL1-991
Arctic
Eldorado
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.1590/S1678-91992008000400010
https://doaj.org/article/0bcf668a22cf4ccbafa8ca4b8ef7fa2c
Description
Summary:Toxoplasma gondii infection may lead to important pathological questions, especially in rural areas, where several sources of infection exist. Therefore, it is important to determine risk factors in order to establish adequate prophylactic measures. The present study aimed to assess the prevalence and risk factors involved in human toxoplasmosis infection in a rural community, in Eldorado, Mato Grosso do Sul State, Brazil. This community was composed of 185 farms - with 671 inhabitants - from which 20 were randomly chosen. In these farms, blood samples were collected from rural workers, who also answered a risk factor questionnaire. Serum samples were analyzed by means of direct agglutination test for the detection of anti-Toxoplasma gondii antibodies. From 73 samples collected, 79.45% were positive. None of the studied variables was significantly associated with the prevalence of the infection. However, among the individuals who reported eyesight impairments, 94.4% had anti-T. gondii antibodies, compared with 74.0% who did not report eyesight changes (p = 0.0594). Moreover, most individuals in the study (68.20%) were older than 18 years and presented 84.44% positivity, compared with 66.67% of positive individuals younger than 18 years old. We were able to conclude that a high prevalence of antibodies did not imply significant associations with the risk factors studied.

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