Clinical Practice: Management of Toxoplasma gondii Infection during Pregnancy
Clinical Infectious Diseases·
- DOI
- 10.1086/590149
- PMID
- 18624630
- PMCID
- —
- OpenAlex
- W1943003474
- Study type
- Journal article
- Publisher
- Oxford University Press (OUP)
- Article type
- journal-article
- Integrity
- current
Why this research matters now
Congenital toxoplasmosis remains preventable yet continues to occur, potentially causing severe outcomes including visual and hearing loss, developmental delays, seizures, and death. The infection can be acquired through contaminated food or water and undercooked meat.
Structured evidence summary
Research question
This clinical practice article addresses the management of Toxoplasma gondii infection during pregnancy, focusing on prevention, diagnosis, and treatment strategies.
Study design
This is a clinical practice article published in Clinical Infectious Diseases, presenting current management approaches rather than reporting primary research data.
Population and setting
The article addresses pregnant women and their fetuses/newborns in the United States and worldwide who are at risk for or affected by Toxoplasma gondii infection.
Main findings
The article notes that toxoplasmosis during pregnancy often goes unrecognized, transmission to the fetus occurs primarily when women acquire primary infection during gestation, and treatment during the first year of life has demonstrated significant improvement in clinical outcomes. Systematic education and serological screening are identified as the most reliable currently available strategies for prevention, diagnosis, and early treatment.
Public-health relevance
Congenital toxoplasmosis remains preventable yet continues to occur, potentially causing severe outcomes including visual and hearing loss, developmental delays, seizures, and death. The infection can be acquired through contaminated food or water and undercooked meat.
Important limitations
This summary is limited to the supplied single-article abstract and bibliographic metadata. The original article is required for decision-grade interpretation of the clinical practice recommendations and their supporting evidence base.
GIDS interpretation
This article is classified under toxoplasmosis with links to transmission dynamics, travel medicine, and treatment topics in the United States. These classifier tags support discoverability within topic-based literature collections and do not represent surveillance data or active case detection.
Related GIDS surveillance
Literature context does not validate, explain, or change a surveillance signal. Exact and contextual relationships are shown separately.
Evidence relationships
This article has 11 auditable classifier relationships to diseases, places, topics, and study design.