TOXOPLASMOSIS

Abstract

HUMAN toxoplasmosis has been confined largely to congenital infection of infants. Acquired toxoplasmosis with clinical illness in the adult remains a rarity. On the basis of toxoplasmin skin reactivity and demonstrable circulating antibodies there is increasing evidence of widespread infection in man without clinical manifestations. As a result of the development of a new serologic method of diagnosis,¹ long series of infants and children with congenital toxoplasmosis have been reported. Sabin and Feldman² reported 23 patients with congenital disease in 1948. Eichenwald³ established the diagnosis for 100 patients from 1948 to 1952, and Feldman³ found 75 patients from 1949 to 1952. Careful interrogation has uniformly failed to elicit any history of illness attributable to toxoplasmosis, either present or past, in the mothers of infants so affected. However, the mothers of infants with toxoplasmosis always show high Toxoplasma antibody titers, indicative of recent infection. Therefore, it is logical to assume that