FRIDAY, June 2, 2006 (HealthDay News) -- Two anti-parasitic drugs, pyrimethamine and sulfadiazine, given during the first year of life, can reduce eye and brain damage for children with a dangerous infection called congenital toxoplasmosis, new research shows.
The parasite that causes the infection -- Toxoplasma gondii -- can infect humans through a number of ways, including undercooked, infected meat and T. gondii oocysts (eggs) found in cat litter. Newly infected pregnant women can transmit the parasite to the fetus.
In most people, the immune system prevents the parasite from causing acute illness. However, if the infection is acquired for the first time while a woman is pregnant, it can cause severe eye and brain damage in the fetus.
This study of 120 infants with toxoplasmosis found that treatment with the two anti-parasitic drugs during the first year of life resulted in normal longer-term outcomes for all children born with the infection who did not already have severe brain involvement.
Even among children born with moderate or severe neurologic disease, symptoms were resolved within a few weeks of starting treatment, and 72 percent of them had normal long-term cognitive outcomes, the study said.
Reporting in the May 15 issue of Clinical Infectious Disease, the researchers said their findings show the importance of screening for toxoplasmosis in pregnant women and newborns.
"We now know that we can improve longer-term outcomes if we treat the acute infection early, but to treat it early, we have to detect it early, and we know we are missing many infants who would benefit," study author Dr. Rima McLeod, a professor of infectious diseases and medical director of the Toxoplasmosis Center at the University of Chicago, said in a prepared statement.
An estimated 85 percent of women of childbearing age in the United States are at risk of acquiring the infection for the first time during gestation and transmitting the infection to their fetus, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
More information
The Nemours Foundation has more about toxoplasmosis.
