Toxoplasmosis: general information
Some of my friends and patients relatives have asked me to write some general information on Toxoplasmosis. Some people close to myself have recently had to go through difficult times because of this illness.
What is Toxoplasmosis?
Toxoplasmosis is an infection caused by a bug called Toxoplasma Gondi. It can cause severe illness and blindness in those who have poor immunity and adversely affect an unborn child if a pregnant woman gets infected.
How do we get it?
The most common mode of infection is through consumption of food and drinks contaminated with the bug. In the Maldivian context, cats are probably the main animal host. Infected cats excrete Toxoplasma bug in their feces. Certain birds may also get infected and pass the bug in their fecal droppings.
In most cases, with the exception of those with poor immunity, the infection itself is asymptomatic and goes unnoticed. Sometime it may result in a mild flu-like illness.
In the very small children and in those with poor immunity, infection can cause significant illness with fever, enlarged lymph glands, altered liver functions and generalised un-wellness. If ocular infection occurs and left untreated scars appear in the retina that could result in reduced vision and blindness.
If an unborn child is infected in the womb, significant congenital anomalies including brain damage, may occur.
Is there any treatment?
In most adults with an intact immunity no treatment is necessary.
If a pregnant woman is infected certain medications are prescribed to minimize the risk of transmission to the unborn child. However, the treatment is not always successful and transmission and infection of the unborn child may occur despite treatment. It is therefore advised to test for status before pregnancy in those at increased risk of infection.
In infected newborn babies multi-drug therapy is used to halt the infection and minimize the impact of the illness. The treatment is unlikely to reverse any damage that has already occurred.
What can we do to prevent infection?
A much better news, I believe, is the relative ease with which we in the Maldives could prevent this infection.
The collection surface for rain water in the Maldives are the house-hold roof tops which are frequented by cats. They are also exposed to bird droppings. While many never care to bother, others do attempt to clean the roof before collecting rain water. The concern however is that none of the cleaning mechanisms involved is even near effective enough to effectively remove the Toxoplasma gondi (the bug causing this infection).
The solution is not complicated. Do clean the roof as much as possible before collecting water from its surface. And most importantly BOIL all water before consumption. Boiling kills these bugs. I would advice boiling rain water, water supply water and any water for that matter.
Fruits and vegetable, if eaten raw, need to be washed well to remove any bacteria or other disease causing organisms from its surface. In the home "vegetable and fruit garden" they may have been contaminated with cat feces and other animal droppings.
With respect to transmission of this infection to the unborn child: If it wasn't so expensive, and time consuming, testing for Toxoplasma infection before conception could be one other strategy to help minimize the effect of this infection on our community. If pregnancy is planned, those at an increased risk of infection (women who use rain water for drinking, those who have pets at home or those who were previously infected) should be tested before becoming pregnant.
If infected, women may be treated to minimize the risk of transmission to the unborn child.
ASK your DOCTOR for more information.
A reasonable array of blood tests to detect Toxoplasmosis is available at most Labs in Male'. Discuss with your doctor whether you need to have the tests done.
What is Toxoplasmosis?
Toxoplasmosis is an infection caused by a bug called Toxoplasma Gondi. It can cause severe illness and blindness in those who have poor immunity and adversely affect an unborn child if a pregnant woman gets infected.
How do we get it?
The most common mode of infection is through consumption of food and drinks contaminated with the bug. In the Maldivian context, cats are probably the main animal host. Infected cats excrete Toxoplasma bug in their feces. Certain birds may also get infected and pass the bug in their fecal droppings.
- Rain water collected from roof tops contaminated with cat feces and bird dropping maybe one of the most common sources of infection in the Maldives. Especially in the Islands, rain water remains the main source of drinking water. Rain water itself is clean, however, the way we collect rain water is far from clean.
- In household where cats are kept as pets, poor personal hygiene after handling the pet and after cleaning its litter may result in contamination of food and ingestion of the disease causing bug. The surfaces of fruits and vegetables maybe contaminated with cat feces and other animal droppings; washing them well before consumption is important.
- Consumption of raw milk is another route of transmission; however, with raw milk unavailable in Maldives, this may not be a problem for us.
- Another very important mode of transmission occur when an infected pregnant woman passes the infection through the placenta to the unborn child. If infected, the unborn child may develop severe illness including significant congenital anomalies and brain damage. Toxoplasma gondi infection during pregnancy is not uncommon in the Maldives.
In most cases, with the exception of those with poor immunity, the infection itself is asymptomatic and goes unnoticed. Sometime it may result in a mild flu-like illness.
In the very small children and in those with poor immunity, infection can cause significant illness with fever, enlarged lymph glands, altered liver functions and generalised un-wellness. If ocular infection occurs and left untreated scars appear in the retina that could result in reduced vision and blindness.
If an unborn child is infected in the womb, significant congenital anomalies including brain damage, may occur.
Is there any treatment?
In most adults with an intact immunity no treatment is necessary.
If a pregnant woman is infected certain medications are prescribed to minimize the risk of transmission to the unborn child. However, the treatment is not always successful and transmission and infection of the unborn child may occur despite treatment. It is therefore advised to test for status before pregnancy in those at increased risk of infection.
In infected newborn babies multi-drug therapy is used to halt the infection and minimize the impact of the illness. The treatment is unlikely to reverse any damage that has already occurred.
What can we do to prevent infection?
A much better news, I believe, is the relative ease with which we in the Maldives could prevent this infection.
The collection surface for rain water in the Maldives are the house-hold roof tops which are frequented by cats. They are also exposed to bird droppings. While many never care to bother, others do attempt to clean the roof before collecting rain water. The concern however is that none of the cleaning mechanisms involved is even near effective enough to effectively remove the Toxoplasma gondi (the bug causing this infection).
The solution is not complicated. Do clean the roof as much as possible before collecting water from its surface. And most importantly BOIL all water before consumption. Boiling kills these bugs. I would advice boiling rain water, water supply water and any water for that matter.
Fruits and vegetable, if eaten raw, need to be washed well to remove any bacteria or other disease causing organisms from its surface. In the home "vegetable and fruit garden" they may have been contaminated with cat feces and other animal droppings.
With respect to transmission of this infection to the unborn child: If it wasn't so expensive, and time consuming, testing for Toxoplasma infection before conception could be one other strategy to help minimize the effect of this infection on our community. If pregnancy is planned, those at an increased risk of infection (women who use rain water for drinking, those who have pets at home or those who were previously infected) should be tested before becoming pregnant.
If infected, women may be treated to minimize the risk of transmission to the unborn child.
ASK your DOCTOR for more information.
A reasonable array of blood tests to detect Toxoplasmosis is available at most Labs in Male'. Discuss with your doctor whether you need to have the tests done.
There is also talk of the parasite causing behavioral">http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2003/sep/25/medicineandhealth.thisweekssciencequestions1">behavioral modification, promiscuity in women and anti-social tendencies in men, though a general consensus among scientists does not exist on these particular effects. In addition to that, one other alarming study undertaken in 2001 also suggests that infection leads to noticeable decline in mental acuity in patients as well which results in automobile accidents and other such tragedies. We really should contemplate this even in cases where the parasite shows no real pathological symptoms.
Naif, I must commend your efforts, which are noble in the truest sense but I implore you to (also)provide these valuable information in our native language. This will exponentially broaden your audience much more, which sure would help your apparent intention to proliferate public health awareness.
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Hi Fizan, I have read about some similar findings, they are mostly from observational studies and the cause-effect relationship is not well established. The evidence presented is not very strong either, larger scale, better planned studies are necessary to establish a clear link.
I have tried dhivehi content....and I would love to have dhivehi content. I have had trouble using dhivehi script on my blog and web pages (the appearance is not appealing). I currently upload dhivehi content as PDF files.
I would be happy to post dhivehi content regularly if someone can get me a template that supports the script. Seriously. My web-designing skill have not helped me do that on my own yet.
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Hi Fizan, after reading your comment I finally got myself to put in an effort to modify a template for Thaana script. The code is not very clean yet but it works like a charm. Here's the link http://dhivehi.niyaf.com
No content yet.
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Hi Niyaf,
I think I got your name wrong in my first comment, so please accept my humblest apologies.
As you were too keen to point out, larger scale, better planned studies are obviously needed to verify these particular characters of the parasite, but all I was saying is that these studies need to be undertaken immediately if there is a (seemingly) tangible link between it and the human-conditioned disasters I mentioned. Imagine the potential destruction it could reap, considering its true. But then again, maybe I am barking up the wrong tree, since I don't think you're a research scientist.
As for the Divehi site, wow, you sure outdone yourself, Doc (don't take offense in me calling you Doc, I just like to imitate good old Bugs). Its a simple layout but has a neat and tidy presentation which can only aid its readability. I have a friend who'd be more than glad to help you, if you need any assistance with the current template that you're working on. Just drop me an email.
Now all you have to do is develop some content for it so good luck. Oh, and kudos. Again. Very impressive work here, Doc. Especially the dialog box which you're using as an online consultation room. By the way, after several bouts of nausea followed by vomiting, parts of my skin just turned a very painful purple and I have blisters and a high fever... what do you think is wrong???
One more comment, doc, whats the deal with HTML links in the comments area of your English blog? I can barely decipher the letters (bluish letters amidst a blackish backdrop), and it would be nice if it supported basic HTML tags too, as I personally like to reference my comments. Now this maybe a problem unique to my browser, which is Firefox, but since there are a few million of us who use it, it would be nice if you took some time out to fix it as well.
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hey doc. are u going to listen to Fizans pleas only. I would like a back ground with pink colour. Oh and the letters and text in green. So are u going to fulfil my wish too. ????
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I am color blind. Only color i am comfortable with is red on a yellow background.
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hey fizan. If u are so keen to conduct research why not go and do it ur self rather than complaining and getting jealous here.
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Hehe, I have been wanting to make a dhivehi template myself. Fizan just motivated me with his comments. AND....I have been wanting to change the comments background to white to enable clearer view of HTML, Fizan just happened to comment on it too.
I actually like the darker background....visit my current home page www.niyaf.com and you'll get the idea. If you visit the page after tonight you'll get to see another new page.....still predominantly black. My old blogger blog was also black......I kind of like darker colours (much like my own skin colour actually...hehe)
Pink? Blue? You can't be serious!
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Fizan, skin conditions have to be seen to be diagnosed! Is it chickenpox? Have yourself shown.....
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Niyaf, I am glad that my comments motivated you to do something to aid your cause, at the same time I lament that your blog attracts some pretty daft people
LOL. I honestly didn't know that you were a pediatrician specializing in neonatal intensive care until I bothered to read some of your more mundane articles (pardon me for not being a lactating mommy -- or err.. concerned daddy, damn political correctness). But then again, I didn't even know we had a NICU in our glorious country, so really can't be blamed. Oh, please don't conclude that this particular comment is an effort to undermine your field of expertise, I have nothing but respect for all of medicine... I just like to jab jokingly at them all.
My ailment was (not-so-obviously) fictional, but by Hippocrates, I didn't know Necrotizing fasciitis had parallel symptoms with so many other common dermatological problems!
Heres to seeing more beneficial work from you on the internet.
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Dear Doctor
I was only ever told that toxoplasmosis was spread through CAT feces, however it could be carried by birds (if say, a cat were to ingest an infected bird). As far as I knew, the oocysts could only become active in a cats intestine and not any other mammal, therefore one only needed to exercise caution upon handling cat feces. Can you please clarify as your information here seems to contradict all other sources I could find on the matter. Thank you
Response by Dr Niyaf:
Thanks for your query.
The information I have provided does not contradict the wide body of medical evidence available. I think there is such a vast canyon between the available information and its dissemination to the medical community and the general public. There are ways of contracting the illness in addition to the zoonotic transmission that you have indicated. I would urge you to read the information provided by the CDC USA.
Here are a few links that I believe you would find useful:
http://www.cdc.gov/toxoplasmosis/
http://www.cdc.gov/toxoplasmosis/epi.html
http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/toxoplasmosis/DS00510/DSECTION=3
Cheers.
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Thanks for the information.
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The following situations potentially expose a person to the toxoplasma parasite and increase the risk of acquiring toxoplasmosis:
* touching your hands to your mouth after gardening, cleaning a cat's litter box, or anything that came into contact with cat feces
* eating raw or partly cooked meat, especially pork, lamb, or venison
* touching your hands to your mouth after contact with raw or undercooked meat
* organ transplantation or transfusion (this is rare)
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