Parasitology

Biography

Biography: Doaa Moustafa Sultan

Abstract

Toxoplasma gondii infection in humans causes significant morbidity and mortality in congenitally infected infants. This study aimed to: 1) assess the frequency of toxoplasmosis among a sample of pregnant women who attended the antenatal care clinics in Al Kuwait hospital, Sharjah - Ministry of health-UAE ,2) identify the risk factors for development of toxoplasmosis and 3) evaluate the utility of a new version of western blot assay to confirm Toxoplasma infections. One hundred fifty pregnant women were informed about the study and 120 women agreed to participate, mean age (SD±) 34.32 ± 6.401. They were classified according to nationality, age groups and blood groups. Blood samples were collected and one epidemiological questionnaire was elaborated to register aspects related to the possible risk factors for development of toxoplasmosis and distributed to the study group. ELISA test kits for detection of Anti- Toxoplasma IgG and IgM were used to screen the samples. Western blot analysis was used to confirm the positives. The results showed 19/ 120 women (15.8%) were positive for anti-T. gondii IgG antibodies and 10/120 (8.3%) were positive for anti-T. gondii IgM antibodies. All ELISA positive samples were confirmed by western blot. There was a significant association between the occurrence of toxoplasmosis and history of ingestion of medium rare cooked beef and history of complicated pregnancy p < 0.05. However, there was no significant association between age, nationality, blood groups, contact with cats, history of blood transfusion, areas of residency and the occurrence of the disease p > 0.05.