Seroprevalence of toxoplasma gondii infection among pregnant women in the Asunafo North District, Brong-Ahafo Region, Ghana
Loading...
Date
2015-11-03
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Abstract
Toxoplasma gondii is the causative organism of toxoplasmosis and it can be acquired orally or congenitally. Congenital infection of neonates is found to be the cause of several neurological, brain and ophthalmic disorders later in life. The objectives of this study were to determine the seroprevalence of T. gondii among pregnant women attending antenatal clinic at Asunafo North district of the Brong-Ahafo region, Ghana.
One hundred and forty-six (146) pregnant women aged 16 to 40 years voluntarily took part in this study. Blood samples were collected and questionnaires were administered to them. ELISA test was done to detect anti-T. gondiiIgG and IgM antibodies in their blood samples. The data collected was analysed using SPSS (Version 16). Analysis of the data collected showed 23.3% (34/146) and 67.8% (99/146) were positive for anti-T. gondiiIgM and IgG respectively. Furthermore, a breakdown of the analysed data is as follows: 10.3% (15/146) tested positive for only anti-T. gondiiIgM, 54.8% (80/146) also tested positive for only anti-T. gondiiIgG and 13% (19/146) tested positive for both anti-T. gondiiIgM and IgG.This gave a total prevalence of anti-T gondii antibodies tested to be 78.1% (114/146).This implies that 23.3% of the respondents were recently infected and 67.8% of the respondents were old infection.
Further studies need to be done to determine the rate of mother-to-child transmission of T. gondii infection in Ghana.
Description
A Thesis submitted to the School of Medical Science, the Department of Clinical Microbiology, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of MASTER OF SCIENCE.