Toxoplasma gondii seroprevalence in the Portuguese population: comparison of three cross-sectional studies spanning three decades

• Autor(a) principal: Gargaté, Maria João
• Data de Publicação: 2016
• Outros Autores: Ferreira, Idalina, Vilares, Anabela, Martins, Susana, Cardoso, Carlos, Silva, Susana, Nunes, Baltazar, Gomes, João Paulo
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos)
• Texto Completo: http://hdl.handle.net/10400.18/4190
• topic: Toxoplasma gondii; Seroprevalence; Portugal; Epidemiology; Parasitology; Infectious Diseases; Infecções Sistémicas e Zoonoses

Background: Toxoplasma gondii is an obligate intracellular protozoan infecting up to one-third of the world's population, constituting a life threat if transmitted from mother to child during pregnancy. In Portugal, there is a lack of knowledge of the current epidemiological situation, as the unique toxoplasmosis National Serological Survey was performed in 1979/1980. Methods: We studied the seroprevalence trends in the Portuguese general population over the past 3 decades, by assessing chronological spread cross-sectional studies, with special focus on women of childbearing age, by age group, region and gender. Results: The T. gondii overall seroprevalence decreased from 47% in 1979/1980 to 22% (95% CI 20% to 24%) in 2013. Generally, we observed that the prevalence of T. gondii IgG increased significantly with age and it decreased over time, both in the general population and in the childbearing women (18% prevalence in 2013). Conclusions: The scenario observed for the latter indicates that more than 80% of childbearing women are susceptible to primary infection yielding a risk of congenital toxoplasmosis and respective sequelae. Since there is no vaccine to prevent human toxoplasmosis, the improvement of primary prevention constitutes a major tool to avoid infection in such susceptible groups.