The physicians also found that demographics play no role in the occurrence of infections. "Acute toxoplasmosis and transmission to the fetus can affect individuals of any background and socioeconomic status," McLeod said.
In France and Austria, education about toxoplasmosis and screening for T. gondii is part of routine obstetrical care. Infection rates have been reduced by about 50 percent as a result of education. But this shows that other measures, such as blood tests during each month of pregnancy, are necessary so that doctors can identify the infection early. Treatment of the mother may help prevent the harmful consequences of the infection in the fetus.
Although most states require screening for a number of genetic and metabolic diseases in the newborn, including phenylketonuria, congenital hypothyroidism and congenital adrenal hyperplasia in the newborn, each of these genetic diseases is less common than toxoplasmosis. But there is no systematic program for screening for toxoplasmosis during pregnancy in the United States.
More than 10 years ago, Jack Remington, a co-author of the study and a professor of medicine at Stanford University School of Medicine and Marcus Krupp research chair and chairman of the department of immunology and infectious diseases at the Research Institute, Palo Alto Medical Foundation, wrote "the time has come" to better address the problem of this significant and treatable cause of loss of sight, hearing and cognition. This study indicates again that to detect this infection so it can be treated, systematic obstetrical and newborn screening for toxoplasmosis are needed. The authors suggest that this is long overdue in the United States.
"Clearly, we need to be doing more than we currently are doing to prevent this congenital infection and adverse consequences of the infection in the fetus and infant," McLeod said. "Education is important, but it is not sufficient."
About this information: This information provided by the University of Chicago Medical Center.
More from SheKnows.com
More from PregnancyandBaby.com
© Copyright 2003-7 SheKnows, LLC and/or individual copyright holders. All Rights Reserved.
