Utilization of molecular and serological methods to investigation Toxoplasma gondii in healthy apparently students in Babylon Province

Abstract EN

Toxoplasmosis, an infection caused by Toxoplasma gondii, is generally asymptomatic or is associated with mild, non-specific clinical manifestations in immunocompetent patients.

The present study consider the first trial in Babylon province to detection of toxoplasmosis among healthy university and secondary students, from February to May 2015, collect 112 blood sample from healthy apparently students.

The results of serological test revealed that 57/112 (50.8 %) was positive for T.

gondii in LAT test, (25 %) for university students and (25.8 %) for secondary students, there isa significant difference (p≤ 0.05) between male (27.6 %) and female (23.2 %) in toxoplasmosis infection, where as 21.4 % was positive for ELISA in which 13.8 % positive for IgG antibodies and 8.0% positive for IgM, while nPCR results showed 19 out of 112(16.9 %) was positive to toxoplasmosis.

The presence of T.

gondii antibodies in the serum regarded as the important criterion for the diagnosis of toxoplasmosis but these methods insufficient to diagnosis, it must be combine with molecular methods such as polymerase chain reaction which detect T.

gondii DNA in five or ten parasites are present in blood.