High prevalence of anti-toxoplasma antibodies and absence of Toxoplasma gondii infection risk factors among pregnant women attending routine antenatal care in two Hospitals of Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

• Prevalence of T. gondii infection among pregnant women in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia was 85.4% (246/288).
• In this study the factors which were considered as risk for toxoplasmosis i.e. age, gestational age, educational status, occupation, history of abortion, consumption of raw meat, consumption of unwashed raw vegetable, cat ownership, and having a history of abortion had no significant association with seroprevalence of toxoplasmosis. A similarly significant difference in prevalence of toxoplasmosis was not found between HIV positive and HIV negative pregnant women.
• The high prevalence of anti-toxoplama antibodies among adult Ethiopians reported by other authors [17–20] is likely to mask the incidence of infections during pregnancy.
• Efforts to describe risk factors for toxoplasma infection among Ethiopians should focus in children.

SummaryObjectiveToxoplasmosis is an infection caused by the protozoan parasite Toxoplasma gondii. It is acquired mainly by eating raw or undercooked meat containing Toxoplasma gondii tissue cyst, eating food or water contaminated with oocyst, and acquiring congenital infection through the placenta. This study was conducted to determine the prevalence of toxoplasmosis and assess possible risk factors associated with the infection among pregnant women in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.MethodCross sectional study was designed, and 288 serum samples were collected from November 1st 2010 to January 2011. The serum samples were tested for anti- Toxoplasma gondii antibodies using latex agglutination test. The risk factors were tested for significance using Bivariate and multivariate analysis. P-value <0.05 was considered statistically significant.Result85.4% were positive for anti Toxoplasma gondii antibody. No significant association was observed between seroprevalence and age, gestational age, socio demographic characters, history of abortion, consumption of raw or undercooked meat, consumption of raw vegetable, owning of cat, and blood transfusion.ConclusionPrevalence of toxoplasmosis among pregnant women in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia is higher than that reported from other countries. Efforts to describe risk factors for toxoplasma infection among Ethiopians should focus in children.