[Toxoplasmosis and contact with animals: study of 390 cases]

Three hundred and ninety patients with suspected toxoplasmosis due to their contact with animales--they owned them, or work with them--are studied. The great significance of this way of acquiring the disease is stated. Every patient had a complement fixation test and an intradermal reaction test with toxoplasmine. An 85.2% positiveness to complement fixation, and a 64.1% to intradermal test were found among those patients who informed animal contact; a 70,6% positiveness to complement fixation, and a 56,2% to intradermal reaction was found in the patients who denied having any contact with animals. This showed both the importance of animal contact as well as other forms of transmission. The contacts were also studied, and the animals were classified according to J. Jira, the researcher: maximal, high, minimal and unreceptiveness to toxoplasma. The possibility of acquiring toxoplasmosis from other sources besides the close contact with animals must be taken into consideration.