Toxoplasmosis is an infection caused by the protozoa, Toxoplasma gondii. It causes a sickness with clinical manifestations mimicking many other diseases.
Toxoplasmosis is an infection caused by the protozoa, Toxoplasma gondii. It causes a sickness with clinical manifestations mimicking many other diseases.
It is an entirely preventable disease. Cats are the primary host, though it can infect all warm blooded animals including human beings.
Eating raw or under cooked meat or eating with contaminated hands is the most common source of infection.
It is estimated that one third of the world’s population is infected with toxoplasma, but majority of times there may be no sickness.
It has been postulated that people who are unduly aggressive, indulge in drunken driving or any such crime may be harbouring cysts of toxoplasmosis in their brain.
Psychiatric problems like undue anxiety, depression and schizophrenia have also been linked to toxoplasmosis. This occurs due to chronic presence of cysts in the brain substance.
Few weeks after the exposure, there may be mild flu like illness which may subside spontaneously or with symptomatic treatment. Along with this, there may be enlargement of lymph nodes in the neck, arm pits or generalized in the whole body.
This may be persistent or recurrent. Severe sickness occurs in immune depressed persons with a low resistance as in HIV/AIDS patients, diabetics, cases of kidney failure or cancer.
Other symptoms depend on the organ affected. There may be severe muscle and or joint pains At times there may be severe abdominal pain mimicking acute abdomen. Affection of the heart causes myocarditis and cardiac failure.
Inner ear may be affected, leading to hearing disturbances and giddiness. Involvement of eyes leads to chorioretinitis resulting in visual disturbances and loss of vision.
In case of involvement of the brain, one have severe headache, encephalitis, acute onset of paralysis of one or more limbs, convulsions, loss of consciousness and or coma depending on the part of brain affected. It may be fatal at times.
In pregnant women it is known to cause abortions and premature births. The infection is also passed on from mother to foetus in the uterus thus the baby born suffers from congenital toxoplasmosis.
High degree of suspicion is needed to diagnose toxoplasmosis in individuals because it mimics so many diseases.
Diagnosis is confirmed by serological tests, where antibodies against toxoplasma are detected. PCR (Polymerase chain reaction) is the confirmatory test for diagnosis.
Treatment is by drugs like Bactrim, pyrimethamine and sulphadiazine and clindamycin, .. These drugs have to be taken for about 6 months. Immune depressed individuals need life long preventive therapy to prevent recurrence of toxoplasmosis.
When taken for such a long time, these drugs tend to produce side effects like anaemia and kidney toxicity.
Prudence demands, it is better to adopt preventive measures against a chronic potentially debilitating illness like toxoplasmosis, rather than suffering from the disease and side effects of treatment.
One should avoid eating undercooked or raw meat. If eating outside, one should be sure that the food has been prepared with due hygienic measures, particularly meat.
Those handling meat in any way like cutting or chopping raw meat should wash hands thoroughly after finishing their work. Good hand washing before cooking or eating food is also effective in minimizing the risk of acquiring or transmitting infections like toxoplasmosis.
Pregnant women should be screened for toxoplasmosis routinely to avoid the baby being infected.
Thus acquiring toxoplasmosis can be totally avoided, even if one gets infected, he or she can be cured completely with adequate treatment.