Management of Toxoplasma gondii Infection during Pregnancy

Clin Infect Dis. 2008 Jul 14. [Epub ahead of print]

Management of Toxoplasma gondii Infection during Pregnancy

Montoya JG, Remington JS

Palo Alto Medical Foundation Toxoplasma Serology Laboratory, Palo Alto, and Department of Medicine and Division of Infectious Diseases and Geographic Medicine, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, California.

Acute infection with Toxoplasma gondii during pregnancy and its potentially tragic outcome for the fetus and newborn continue to occur in the United States, as well as worldwide, despite the fact that it can be prevented. The infection can be acquired through ingestion of infected, undercooked meat or contaminated food or water. Transmission to the fetus occurs almost solely in women who acquire their primary infection during gestation and can result in visual and hearing loss, mental and psychomotor retardation, seizures, hematological abnormalities, hepatosplenomegaly, or death. Systematic education and serological screening of pregnant women are the most reliable and currently available strategies for the prevention, diagnosis, and early treatment of the infection in the offspring; this is largely because toxoplasmosis in pregnant women most often goes unrecognized. Treatment of the infection in the fetus and infant during the first year of life has been demonstrated to significantly improve the clinical outcome.

PMID: 18624630 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher]