Abstract
BackgroundToxoplasmosis in immuno-compromised hosts manifests primarily as a life threatening condition, toxoplasmic encephalitis. However, there is scarce information about the magnitude of Toxoplasma gondii infection among HIV-infected people in Ethiopia. This study was, therefore, conducted to determine the sero-prevalence of T. gondii infection among HIV-infected and HIV-uninfected subjects.FindingsSera were collected from people with and without HIV infection for the purpose of studying hepatitis B virus (HBV) at St. Paul Hospital, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia from 24 January 2007 to 15 February 2007. Among these sera, the first 330 consecutive sera, 165 from each HIV sero-group, were selected and tested for anti-T. gondii IgG antibodies using Enzyme Linked Immunosorbent Assay. The seroprevalence of Toxoplasma infection was assessed against socio-demographic characteristics, HIV and HBV serostatus and HBV-related risk factors. The overall sero-prevalence of latent T. gondii infection among the study subjects was 90.0%. Toxoplasma infection was observed with respective prevalence of 93.3% and 86.7% among HIV-infected and HIV-uninfected people. Though Toxoplasma infection seems to be influenced by age, gender and HIV serostatus, only HBV serostatus was significantly associated (OR 2.71, CI 1.12 to 6.57) in multivariate logistic regression analysis.ConclusionThe seroprevalence of latent T. gondii infection is high and similar by HIV status. Educating people to prevent acquisition of new Toxoplasma infection and minimizing the risk of disease manifestations among HIV-Toxoplasma co-infected individuals is important.
Highlights
Toxoplasmosis in immuno-compromised hosts manifests primarily as a life threatening condition, toxoplasmic encephalitis
In vast majority of immunocompetent human host, T. gondii ensue a latent infection characterized by the persistence of the organism in tissues without causing disease [8]
Parts of separated sera were originally used for studying seroprevalence of hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection and leftover samples were stored at -70°C for further investigations
Summary
Toxoplasmosis in immuno-compromised hosts manifests primarily as a life threatening condition, toxoplasmic encephalitis. There is scarce information about the magnitude of Toxoplasma gondii infection among HIV-infected people in Ethiopia. In vast majority of immunocompetent human host, T. gondii ensue a latent infection characterized by the persistence of the organism in tissues (primarily brain, skeletal muscle, and heart) without causing disease [8]. In chronically infected individuals who develop defects in cell-mediated immunity a symptomatic disease more likely occurs as a result of reactivation of latent infection [9,10]. Toxoplasmosis among Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome (AIDS) patients manifests primarily as a life threatening condition, toxoplasmic encephalitis (TE) [9,10,11]. Diagnosis and appropriate management of toxoplasmosis decreases the incidence rates of TE; subsequently reduce morbidity and mortality among HIV infected individuals [7]
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