The prevalence of toxoplasma infection in southern Iran

To determine the prevalence of infection with Toxoplasma gondii in the Fars Province of Iran, sera from 300 patients hospitalised at the Pahlavi University Medical Centre in Shiraz were tested. There were 157 males and 143 females, with a mean age of 39 years (range 10--80 years). The indirect immunofluorescent antibody technique was used and titres of 1:16 and above were considered positive. Eighty eight patients of whom 50 were male and 38 female (mean age 41 years, range 14--80 years) had positive sera. Of these 88 patients, 35 (40%), 25 (28%), 17 (19%), 5 (6%) and 6 (7%) had antibody titres of 1:16, 1:32, 1:64, 1:128 and 1:256 respectively. One hundred and twenty three of the 212 patients with negative sera (58%) had contact with cats. A similar proportion of patients with positive sera [51 of 88 (58%)] also had contact with cats. It is concluded that a substantial proportion of our patients (29%) show serological evidence of infection with Toxoplasma gondii. A significant correlation between exposure to cats and the consumption of improperly cooked meat on the one hand and seropositivity on the other, could not be demonstrated. There was no significant increase in the incidence of seropositivity with increasing age (P = 0.35).