Does Toxoplasma gondii have any effect on late pregnancy?

Infection with Toxoplasma gondii in late pregnancy may cause fetal splenomegaly, jaundice, myocarditis, poor IQ development, hearing impairment, cataracts and multifocal macular inflammation many years or even decades after birth. For patients with toxoplasmosis, the best medication is 0.5 g of acetylspiramycin, 4 times a day, for 2 weeks, and the treatment course can be repeated intermittently for 2 weeks. You can also use pyrimethamine, and take folic acid tablets while taking the medicine. Newborns born to pregnant women infected with Toxoplasma gondii should be treated with acetylspiramycin, 30 mg 4 times a day, for 1 week, even if they appear normal.

In clinical medicine, toxoplasmosis is divided into two categories: congenital and secondary. Congenital toxoplasmosis refers to the transmission of Toxoplasma gondii from a pregnant woman to her fetus through the fetal blood. It can cause miscarriage, premature birth, fetal malformation, or stillbirth, especially during early pregnancy when the incidence of fetal infection is highest. Typical symptoms of congenital toxoplasmosis include hydrocephalus, cerebral calcifications, macular choroiditis and psychomotor disorders. In addition, it may be accompanied by systemic manifestations, including fever, rash, vomiting, diarrhea, jaundice, splenomegaly, anemia, myocarditis, epilepsy, etc. in infancy.

Secondary toxoplasmosis refers to infection acquired from the outside after birth. One of the most common clinical symptoms is lymphadenopathy, usually in the mandibular and posterior cervical lymph nodes. Patients often have long-term low fever, fatigue, malaise, splenomegaly and systemic food poisoning symptoms. Secondly, Toxoplasma often invades some important human organs such as the brain and eyes. Eye diseases are mainly characterized by fundus macular choroiditis, which often manifests as encephalitis, meningoencephalitis, epilepsy and mental confusion in people with weakened immune function.

For patients suspected of Toxoplasma infection, blood tests are mainly performed. The most common method is to do a blood smear, which can be done directly with blood or with bone marrow. Blood smears can sometimes reveal trophoblasts or cysts, which can confirm Toxoplasma infection. Blood smears can clearly detect the heteromorphic manifestations of Toxoplasma. You can also do a Toxoplasma antibody test. Antigens include IgM and IgG, and this test can also confirm whether there is Toxoplasma infection. And you can understand whether the current stage belongs to the active period.