Dr. Murai Éva - Gubányi András szerk.: Parasitologia Hungarica 29-30. (Budapest, 1997)

© Hungarian Natural History Museum Hungarian Society of Parasitologists Analysis of the serological results of toxoplasma screening of pregnant women in Szeged with special regard to the year 1995 Zsuzsanna SZÉNÁSI

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, Réka MECSEKI

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, Kinga LUKÁCS

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, Edit URBÁN

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, Klára RÁKOS

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, Zsófia OZSVÁR

2 and Erzsébet NAGY

1 1

Department of Clinical Microbiology, Albert Szent-Györgyi Medical University, H-6701 Szeged, P. O. Box 482, Hungary Department of Infectology, Szent György Hospital, H-8000 Székesfehérvár, Seregélyest út 3, Hungary (Received 13 March, 1997) Abstract: A general screening program was organized in the region of Szeged for the early detection of congenital toxoplasmosis in pregnant women. Between 1987 and 1995, all pregnant women in that region (a total of 19,985 persons) were screened by modern serological methods: 115 of them were found to belong to the category of being "suspicious of acute toxoplasmosis". All these pregnant women and their newborn (n = 115) were appropriately monitored both clinically and serologically (CFT, anti-P30 ELISA IgG, IgA and IgM determination, PCR amplification and Western blot analysis). Furthermore, appropriate treatment was immediately started both in the mothers suspicious of "acute" toxoplasmosis and in their newborn. No case of congenital toxoplasmosis has been detected among the infants and children so far. Thus, we consider the program highly successful for congenital toxoplasmosis screening. An analysis of serological data of the 2,091 pregnant women screened in 1995 is also presented and discussed. Key words: Toxoplasma gondii, congenital toxoplasmosis, serological screening, fetomaternal treatment, prevalence rate, "acute" vs "chronic" infection, analysis of age groups, prevention of fetal infection. INTRODUCTION Toxoplasma infection generally results in mild or no illness in healthy humans and induces a lifelong immunity against reinfection. Toxoplasma infection can cause, however, a serious disease in the fetus (congenital infection) and in immunocompromised patients, especially in those with acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (Godard et al. 1990). The fact that congenital infection with Toxoplasma gondii may result in life-threatening disease