Abstract
Recent studies from Austria, France and Italy have shown that there is a poor adherence to the screening scheme for maternal Toxoplasma infections in pregnancy demonstrated by the fact that many recommended examinations are missed. This leads to undetected infections and limits our knowledge of incidence of the disease. We discuss the negative consequences of this situation on research on treatment effectiveness and the outcomes of congenital toxoplasmosis. The responsible public health institutions should assume responsibility for appropriate surveillance of the screening programme and take measures to improve screening adherence during pregnancy. Screening should start as early as possible in pregnancy and the latest test should be done at delivery. Screening schedule should allow distinguishing infections from the first, second and third trimester of pregnancy, as the risk of materno-foetal transmission and outcomes in case of foetal infections varies by time.
Highlights
Few conditions in medicine are more tragic than lifelong disabilities in children already acquired in pregnancy, like in congenital toxoplasmosis [1]
We recently reported in this journal a study to determine the incidence of maternal toxoplasmosis [21]
Our analysis was based on data from the federal state of Upper Austria for the time period 2000 to 2007
Summary
Few conditions in medicine are more tragic than lifelong disabilities in children already acquired in pregnancy, like in congenital toxoplasmosis [1]. Most notably France and Austria, have engaged in preventive programmes to fight this disease: These countries were the first to implement population-wide, free of cost prenatal screening programmes more than three decades ago [2,3,4]. The idea of this approach is an early detection of maternal infection in pregnancy to implement the treatment as early as possible. Country with a long-standing screening tradition? We discuss problems encountered in the analysis of screening data from Austria
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