Prevalence of Toxoplasmosis in HIV/AIDS Patients in Mettu Karl Hospital

Abstract

Toxoplasma gondiiis food and waterborne opportunistic pathogen that causes severe disease in immunocompromised patients. It is caused by an obligatory intracellular protozoon. It causes a wide range of diseases with toxoplasma encephalitis commonly encountered in HIV/AIDS patients. It has been estimated that one-third of the human population is infected with this parasite. A sample of 120 HIV/AIDS patients has been taken from Mettu Karl Hospital. In this study logistic regression is applied for binary response data. To assess whether the model adequately fit to the data different model checking and model diagnostic have been applied. The study indicates that the prevalence of toxoplasmosis for HIV\AIDS patients in the study area was 60%. The analysis shows that some health, economic and risk behavior factors influence exposure of patients to toxoplasmosis. Further, the study shows that the risk factors of Toxoplasmosis are education, marital status, house toilet, tap water and washing hand and raw meat. The factor that influences toxoplasmosis status can be grouped as risk behavior factors (hand washing and raw meat), demographic and health factors (Education, marital status and house toilet) and economic factors (tap water). Under such grouping we can state that patients who are involved in risky behaviors will have higher risk of contracting toxoplasmosis.