Regional variation in toxoplasmosis seronegativity in the São Paulo metropolitan region

• Autor(a) principal: Guimarães, A.C.S.
• Data de Publicação: 1993
• Outros Autores: Kawarabayashi, M., Borges, M.M., Tolezano, J.E., Andrade Jr., H.F.
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Revista do Instituto de Medicina Tropical de São Paulo
• Texto Completo: https://www.revistas.usp.br/rimtsp/article/view/29092
• topic: Toxoplasmosis; Epidemiology; Serology; Foetal risk; Pregnancy

Toxoplasmosis is a highly prevalent zoonotic human infection caused by the Apicomplexa protozoon Toxoplasma gondii. The acute disease is usually mild or asymptomatic, except for foetal infection transmitted by acutely infected pregnant women, which courses as a devastating disease. In order to determine possible regional variations in risk factors, we studied the frequency of seronegativity in areas of the São Paulo Metropolitan Region, comparing liters and age groups. The prevalence of seronegativity was determined retrospectively in 1286 pregnant women receiving prenatal care at public health services in four selected areas of the São Paulo Metropolitan Region of similar socioeconomic background. The São Paulo City area had the higher frequency of seronegativity (41.1%), followed by the Northwest (31.5%) and Southwest (29.9%) areas, with similar intermediate levels, and by the Northeast (22.5%) area with the lowest frequency (p