بررسي فراواني عفونت توكسوپلاسماكوندي در زنان باردار مراجعه كننده به مراكز بهداشتي درماني شهري و روستايي الشتر در سال 87

Seroprevalence study of toxoplasmosis in pregnant women referred to Aleshtar rural and urban health centers in 2008

Background: Toxoplasmosis is one of the a parasitic infectious caused by the protozoan Toxoplasma gondii. Congenital toxoplasmosis can cause abortion or fetus damage in pregnant women. The purpose of this study was to determine the seroprevalence of toxoplasmosis (IgG & IgM) among the pregnant women referred to Aleshtar rural and urban health centers in 2008. Materials and Methods: Total 331 blood samples were collected from 204 urban and 127 rural pregnant wemon referred to rural and urban health centers of Aleshtar. After recording their information in the questionnaire and preparation of sample, all samples were evaluated with IgG-and IgM-ELISA to detect anti-Toxoplasma gondii antibodies. Data were analysed by descriptive statistics and chi-square test. Results: In this study seroprevalence of toxoplasmosis in urban and rural pregnant women were 36/2% and 44%, respectively. And 11. 2% of the urban and 9. 4% of the rural women suffered from acute Toxoplasma infection; while 25% and 34. 6% of the urban and the rural cases had chronic infection, respectively. The results of analysis showed that there were significant relationships between seropositivity (IgG and IgM) and education level, age, contact with raw meat, contact with cat, kind of food, washing vegetables, consumption of vegetables and milk in both urban and rural pregnant women (p<0. 05). There was no significant difference between seropositivity and other variables. Conclusion: The results of this study showed that the high level of education and preferment health awareness can reduce the risk of toxoplasmosis. Nevertheless, %60. 8 of the pregnant women in this study didnʹt have previous history of toxoplasma infection and are exposed to primary infectin and acute disease. Therefore, preventive measures and controlled programs are necessary.