Seroepidemiological analysis of toxoplasmosis in college students

Background: toxoplasmosis is a zoonosis caused by an obligate intracellular parasite,toxoplasma gondii,which affects warm-blooded animals including humans. its prevalence rates usually vary in different regions of the planet.methods: in this study,an analysis of the seroprevalence of toxoplasmosis among brazilian students was proposed by means of igg specific antibodies detection. the presence of anti-toxoplasma gondiiantibodies by indirect fluorescent antibody test (ifat) was also evaluated in order to compare it with enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (elisa) and to assess the use of 2,2′-azinobis(3-ethylbenzothiazoline-6-sulfonic acid) and o-phenylenediamine dihydrochloride chromogens.results: the ifat method showed a seroprevalence of 22.3%. these results were similar to those obtained by elisa (24.1%). the seroprevalence was directly estimated from the igg avidity,which showed that in a sample of 112 students,three of them had acute infection,an incidence of 1.6% in the studied population.conclusion: in this study,the use of different chromogenic substrates in immunoenzymatic elisa assays did not display different sensitivity in the detection oft. gondii-reagent serum. the extrapolation of results to this population must be carefully considered,since the investigation was conducted on a reduced sample. however,it allows us to emphasize the importance of careful and well prepared studies to identify risk factors for toxoplasmosis,to adopt preventive measures and to offer guidance to at-risk populations about the disease. © 2015 rodrigues et al.