Toxoplasmosis and Risk Factors Among Female Students of Medical Colleges at Basra University, Iraq
Maysaloon A. AL-Sadoon1
, Muntaha A. H. Nasir2, Esraa T. Yasir3, Ahmed O. Khalaf3 and Saja J. Kadim31Department of Microbiology, University of Basra, College of Medicine.
2Department of Clinical Laboratory Sciences ,University of Basra, College of Pharmacy.
3University of Basra, College of Medicine.
Corresponding Author E-mail: hmaysloon@yahoo.com
Abstract: Toxoplasma gondii is of great concern in public health because it affects a lot of people in the globe. However, in the clinical setting, it rarely causes serious disease. The currents research was performed on university students in Basra province to estimate the prevalence of toxoplasmosis and its risk factors. It is first the time research was done in Basra province. Venous samples of blood were obtained from 177 women in the higher institution of learning of Basra in 2018. The participants were aged between nineteen to twenty-four years. The samples were analyzed if they had anti-T. gondii IgM & IgG antibodies that would show evidence of T.gondii infection. The participants were also given questionnaires to determine risk factors. The mean age of the participants was 21.24 years, and a majority of them were aged between twenty-two to twenty-four years. The differences between contact with an animal and age that has examined positive for toxoplasmosis were not statistically significant. Among the 177 participants only two, who are about 1.13% tested positive for T. gondii IgM which is consider as recent infection while, 20 of them with positive IgG antibodies was detect as a past infection. The only variable that had a positive association with testing positive to T. gondii was contacting with soil (garden at the house) the level of significance for the association was less than 0.05.
Keywords: Antibodies; IgM, IgG Antibodies; Risk Factors; Toxoplasmosis; University Students Back to TOC