Toxoplasma gondii: The parasite in trend

Abstract

Toxoplasma gondii (T. gondii), an enigmatic coccidian and an intracellular obligate protozoan parasite, causes high infection rate and disease burden in humans worldwide. Toxoplasmosis is an important food-and waterborne parasitic disease. The seroprevalence of chronic toxoplasmosis is estimated to vary from <2 % up to 70 % among people living in Southeast Asia. Contact with cats and consumption of uncooked meat are the most common risk factors in the transmission of Toxoplasma infection. Interestingly, a similar prevalence rate of toxoplasmosis is also reported among infected animals. In view of this clinical scenario, toxoplasmosis is an etiological factor in pregnant women related to abortion, stillbirth, and bad obstetric history. It requires consideration in differential diagnosis of patients with unexplained lymphadenopathy. Moreover, toxoplasmosis is found to be a common cause in patients with posterior uveitis. With the concurrent HIV/AIDS pandemic, toxoplasmosis is shown to be highly prevalent in HIV-infected patients with substantial incidence of AIDS-related toxoplasmic encephalitis (TE) being reported mainly from Malaysia, Singapore, and Thailand. Majority of active TE patients presented with typical neurological manifestations with CD4 count of less than 100 cells/cumm. Diagnosis of TE is based on positive Toxoplasma serostatus and typical ring-enhancing lesions in the brain on CT scan finding. Despite an effective anti-Toxoplasma therapy, cases of relapsing TE are still reported. So far, there is no outbreak of toxoplasmosis related to animals or humans documented in Southeast Asia.