Recent Toxoplasmosis among Pregnant Women Receiving Antenatal Care at the University of Port Harcourt Teaching Hospital, Nigeria

Aim: To determine the seroprevalence of recent Toxoplasma gondii infection using IgG avidity Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) among pregnant women in the University of Port Harcourt Teaching Hospital, Nigeria.

Study Design: A cross-sectional study.

Place and Duration of Study: Department of Medical Microbiology and Parasitology and Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, University of Port Harcourt Teaching Hospital (UPTH), Rivers State, Nigeria between January and June 2013.

Methodology: Involved two hundred and eighty-eight (288) pregnant women in their first trimester who gave informed consent. Questionnaires were administered to determine socio-demographic factors. Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) was performed on all women’s sera to detect anti-Toxoplasma Immunoglobulin G (IgG) and Immunoglobulin M (IgM) and the sero-positive samples were subjected to IgG Avidity ELISA. Data was analyzed using the statistical package Epi info version 6.04 d.

Results: A total of one hundred and eighty-nine (65.6%) pregnant women were seropositive for IgM and IgG among which thirty-three (11.5%) were positive for IgM only, Three (1.6%) among the one hundred and eighty-nine had low IgG avidity percentage while one hundred and eighty-six (98.4%) had high IgG avidity percentage giving a 1.04% seroprevalence of recent infection among these pregnant women.

Conclusion: One in every two pregnant women had been exposed; however, though only a small fraction of these were possibly recent infections, measures to prevent maternal toxoplasmosis in pregnancy as well as diagnose recent infections should be optimised due to the potential for congenital infection with its grave socio-medical implications. The IgG avidity test could therefore, be useful in avoiding unnecessary treatment for Toxoplasmosis in pregnancy.