CONGENITAL TOXOPLASMOSIS - A SIGNIFICANT CAUSE OF NEUROLOGICAL MORBIDITY IN ISRAEL

The incidence of congenital toxoplasmosis in Israel is largely unknown , as is the impact of this condition on the neurological diseases of c hildhood, We examined the association between toxoplasmosis and three neurological disorders: epilepsy, cerebral palsy, and nerve deafness, Ninety-five children 1-15 years of age who had one of these three diag noses but who had not had perinatal meningitis or anoxia and had no ge netic predisposition for the documented neurological disorder were eli gible for the study; 109 children hospitalized for elective surgery se rved as age-matched controls, Demographic and serological data were an alyzed by logistic regression, The prevalences of serum antibodies to Toxoplasma gondii in the study and control groups were 22% and 9%, res pectively. Children with one of the three neurological disorders were significantly more likely to have IgG antibodies to T. gondii (relativ e risk, 2.5; P = .03), The relative risk of seropositivity was remarka bly high (7.1) among children with nerve deafness (P = .01), Large-sca le prospective cohort studies of pregnant women are needed to substant iate the impact of congenital toxoplasmosis on the neurological diseas es of childhood in Israel.