Toxoplasmosis News and Research

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Toxoplasmosis is considered to be the third leading cause of death attributed to foodborne illness in the United States. More than 60 million men, women, and children in the U.S. carry the Toxoplasma parasite, but very few have symptoms because the immune system usually keeps the parasite from causing illness. However, women newly infected with Toxoplasma during pregnancy and anyone with a compromised immune system should be aware that toxoplasmosis can have severe consequences for them.

Screening for toxoplasmosis for all pregnant women and newborns is necessary

Physicians found that signs, symptoms and identifiable risk factors are absent in more than half of the mothers of infants with congenital toxoplasmosis in a national study of children with this disease.

9 Feb 2005

76 million people get sick in US, 300,000 are hospitalized, and 5,000 die from foodborne illness

Foodborne illnesses have a major public health impact in the United States. It is estimated that each year in the United States, 76 million people get sick, more than 300,000 are hospitalized, and 5,000 die as a result of foodborne illnesses, primarily the very young, elderly, and the immunocompromised.

18 Apr 2004

Cryptosporidium parvum parasite could help to develope new therapies for the disease

Cryptosporidium parvum, an insidious, one-celled, waterborne parasite that lodges in the intestines of infected people and animals and for which there is currently no effective treatment, is missing key structures normally found in similar parasites, say researchers supported by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), one of the National Institutes of Health. The results of their genome sequencing project, could help scientists home in on new drug targets that may lead to therapies for the disease.

26 Mar 2004