Toxoplasmosis

Toxoplasmosis.

Toxoplasma gondii.

People and animals have lived side by side for thousands of years and during this time managed to acquire about 150 common diseases. Toxoplasmosis.

However, for our country this list can be reduced to 30, the rest of the sores are African and Asian exotics.
But there is one disease that can be infected from animals and which is especially dangerous for a future mother — it’s toxoplasmosis.

Toxoplasmosis.

Toxoplasmosis is a parasitic disease. The causative agent is an intracellular parasite belonging to the simplest. The final its owner is a domestic cat, excreting with feces oocysts toxoplasm, which can persist for up to 2 years (up to 2 years) in the external environment and infect many species of animals and humans.

Studies conducted in the US have shown that about 30% of domestic cats are infected with toxoplasm. Other animals serve as intermediate hosts, and infection from them occurs only when eating thermally inadequately processed meat products.

Thus, toxoplasmosis can be infected in three ways: orally — directly from the animal and eating raw meat, transplacentally — from the mother to the fetus and, finally, with blood transfusions and organ transplantation (but this, as the doctors say, is the rarest way of transmitting the disease) .

The total number of infected people in the world is more than 500 million people.

Toxoplasmosis.

Toxoplasmosis almost always proceeds in a latent form.
2-3 weeks after infection, the temperature may increase, lymph nodes increase, a feeling of weakness develops. Sometimes there is a rash, but very soon disappears.

Only in 0,2-0,3% of patients the acquired toxoplasmosis passes in an acute form, it proceeds hard and can lead to a lethal outcome.
In addition, the chronic and latent form of infection can be activated in patients with reduced immunity.

But if you have had toxoplasmosis, persistent immunity remains for life: neither the consequences of the disease, nor the secondary infection can be no longer feared.

Pregnancy is the most inopportune time to pick up this infection. Toxoplasmosis is dangerous because it causes various deformities in the fetus: in the future, infectious babies are threatened with blindness, deafness, and defeat of the nervous system.

According to statistics, about 1% of women are infected with toxoplasm during pregnancy, one of them is transmitted to the fetus through every placenta.

Therefore, all future mothers are urged to go through the examination to determine if they have the appropriate antibodies in their blood.

If a positive verdict is passed, then everything is in order. If the diagnosis turns out to be negative, then the woman should be careful: it is necessary for her to get sick during pregnancy, and the infection can be transmitted to the child.

The probability of developing the disease increases with infection at a later date of pregnancy.

In the first trimester, the permeability of the placenta to the pathogen is quite low, and infection occurs in about 15% of cases.

However, it is at this time that the most serious consequences of infection with toxoplasma arise.
In the second trimester, the permeability of the placenta increases, the frequency of transmission of infection is also, and the probability of fetal damage grows to 20%.

When infected in the last three months of pregnancy, the probability of transmission of infection and fetus reaches 50-65%.

For severe forms of congenital toxoplasmosis, a triad of symptoms is characteristic: hydrocephalus, intracerebral calcifications, chorioretinitis.

Of motor disorders, spastic paresis, central paralysis, epileptic seizures, gross organic disturbances of the organ of vision are observed — from chorioretinitis to microphthalmia and complete absence of the eyeball.

What to do if the infection during pregnancy did happen?

In this case it is necessary to contact the specialists for more accurate
Diagnosis of the condition and the appointment of treatment for the prevention of congenital toxoplasmosis in a baby in the womb.

To avoid a dangerous disease, it is enough to observe basic rules of personal hygiene. A cat is not required to be kicked out of the house during pregnancy.

Show her to the vet to make sure there are no different diseases. Do not let her eat the possible vectors of the disease — birds and rodents.

Be sure to cook meat and fish, which feed your pet. Daily clean her toilet, but always use rubber gloves. Wear them and while working in the garden.

And again: never try raw raw meat, even the smallest.
For the future pregnancy, the transferred infection does not affect.