Toxoplasmosis

Toxoplasmosis is a parasitic disease caused by Toxoplasma gondii.Infections with toxoplasmosis usually cause no symptoms in adult humans. Occasionally there may be a few weeks or months of mild flu-like illness such as muscle aches and tender lymph nodes. In a small number of people, eye problems may develop.Acute toxoplasmosis is often asymptomatic in healthy adults. However, symptoms may manifest and are often influenza-like: swollen lymph nodes, headaches, fever, and fatigue or muscle aches and pains that last for a month or more. Rarely will a human with a fully functioning immune system develop severe symptoms following infection.

Treatment is often only recommended for people with serious health problems, such as people with HIV whose CD4 counts are under 200 cells/mm3, because the disease is most serious when one's immune system is weak. Trimethoprim/sulfamethoxazole is the drug of choice to prevent toxoplasmosis, but not for treating active disease.Some evidence suggests latent infection may subtly influence a range of human behaviors and tendencies, and infection may alter the susceptibility to or intensity of a number of affective, psychiatric, or neurological disorders. Research has linked toxoplasmosis with schizophrenia.In the Argentina, about 10,000 cases of Toxoplasmosis infection are reported in humans each year. Almost 14% of the Argentina population is infected with Toxoplasmosis, a parasite of dogs and cats that can be passed from animals to humans.