HUMAN TOXOPLASMOSIS OUTBREAKS AND THE AGENT INFECTING FORM. FINDINGS FROM A SYSTEMATIC REVIEW

• Published in: Revista do Instituto de Medicina Tropical de São Paulo
• Main Authors: Luciana Regina MEIRELES, Claudio Cesar Jaguaribe EKMAN, Heitor Franco de ANDRADE JR, Expedito José de Albuquerque LUNA
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Universidade de São Paulo (USP) 2015
• Subjects: Toxoplasmosis; Toxoplasma gondii; Outbreaks; Oocyst; Cyst; Foodborne diseases; Waterborne diseases; Arctic medicine. Tropical medicine; RC955-962; Infectious and parasitic diseases; RC109-216; Arctic
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.1590/S0036-46652015000500001; https://doaj.org/article/de473dd8d29c47cdad77649a9410edaf

SUMMARY Toxoplasmosis, a worldwide highly prevalent zoonotic infection, is transmitted either by the oocysts, from water and soil, or the tissue cysts, in raw or undercooked infected meat, of Toxoplasma gondii. An ongoing debate is whether there are differences between the clinical and epidemiological characteristics of the outbreaks due to one or the other infective form of the agent. We performed a systematic review, recovering 437 reported outbreaks of which 38 were selected. They were complete reports containing ascribed Toxoplasma infecting form, and clinical and demographic data. There was no gender or age group selection in the outbreaks, which were described more often in the Americas. A large number of individuals were affected when oocysts, associated with soil and water contaminated with cat feces, were considered the transmission source. Onset of symptoms occurred early when the infection was ascribed to meat tissue cysts (11.4 ± 6.7 days) with sharpened temporal distribution of cases, while a broader and prolonged appearance of new cases was observed when oocysts in water were the source of the infection (20 ± 7 days, p < 0.001). Such information may be useful in the design and implementation of control strategies.