EPIDEMIOLOGIC-STUDY OF LATENT AND RECENT INFECTION BY TOXOPLASMA-GONDII IN PREGNANT-WOMEN FROM A REGIONAL POPULATION IN THE UK

Aims: To determine the prevalence of IgG and IgM to Toxoplasma gondii (TG) and predict the incidence of infection during pregnancy and in fo etuses. Methods: Thirteen thousand pregnant women from eastern England were tested at the time of booking for antenatal screening. Screening was carried out for the presence of IgG and IgM anti-TG, followed by confirmation with commercially available assays, Results: Latent infec tion to TG was found in 7.7% of women and increased with age from 6.8 to 17.8%, Recent infection accounted for an additional 0.4% equally di stributed across age groups, No difference was found between urban and rural place of residence. A 1-2% incidence of TG infection every 5 ye ars of age was found, IgM-only cases were mostly false positives and w ere unsuitable for statistical analysis, On the basis of both IgM and IgG imputed data, TG infection was found significantly higher during t he first trimester of pregnancy, Three to sixteen TG-infected foetuses per 10 000 pregnancies were predicted, Conclusions: The east of Engla nd has a low prevalence of TG infection and therefore a high, at-risk population of pregnant women. Repeated screening during pregnancy woul d be expensive, but would detect and possibly prevent infection in app roximately 10 neonates per 10 000 women.