Clinical Significance:
Toxoplasma gondii is a parasite that can transmit via rodents, cats, child birth etc. Toxoplasma gondii is a serious zoonotic parasite that can cause serious problems in unborn children and babies. Congenital infection occurs when tachyzoites are transmitted across the placenta from mother to child.
Effects of an infection by Toxoplasma can be listed as follows:
- Abortion
- The vision and the nervous system of the foetus can also be affected
- Damage is dependent on the age of gestation i.e., maximum damage during the first 2 trimesters (hydrocephalus, mental and psychomotor retardation, blindness, and cerebral keratifications)
SYMPTOMS:
- Generally asymptomatic and non specific, sometimes mildly symptomatic.
- Symptoms like anemia, splenomegaly, headache, and sore-throat.
- Jaundice, fever, hepatomegaly, adenopathy, vomiting, asthma.
