Diagnosis, Incidence, and Prevention of Congenital Toxoplasmosis

Abstract

Sir .—The recent overview of the literature on toxoplasmosis by Koskiniemi and colleagues 1 should have been more critical to achieve its purpose. It fails to distinguish between proven techniques and solutions with relatively untried procedures. Concerning the serologic diagnosis, the titers in none of the tests correlate with the severity of disease or infection; this is not a shortcoming of the Sabin-Feldman dye test but of the way some people interpret tests for toxoplasmosis. I also disagree with the statement that routine antibody screening is not diagnostic in children with sequelae of intrauterine infection. At least in the United States, where young children rarely become infected from the environment, intelligently applied tests are usually diagnostic. Two, not one, direct agglutination tests are marketed by Bio-Merieux, Lyons, France. The IgG test is useful for general serologic diagnosis. Not correctly identified was the more important capture test for IgM, which