How is toxoplasmosis transmitted from person to person, from a cat to a pregnant woman?

Among the diseases that develop as a result of parasites entering the human body, the most dangerous is toxoplasmosis.

Proceeding practically asymptomatically, it can cause a lot of trouble, undermining your health. To protect yourself from it, you need to know how this disease is transmitted and what measures need to be taken to avoid infection.

What to do in such a situation? To get started, we recommend reading this article. This article describes in detail methods of controlling parasites. We also recommend that you consult a specialist. Read the article >>>

Signs of infection

In people with an adequate immune response, toxoplasmosis is usually asymptomatic. If your immune system is weakened, the following symptoms may appear after infection:

general malaise,
increased fatigue and weakness,
headache,
fever,
muscle pain,
enlarged lymph nodes (mainly cervical).

The disease can cause pneumonia, damage to the brain (encephalitis), heart (myocarditis), eyes and other organs.

The listed manifestations indicate the development of acute toxoplasma infection.

How can you become infected with toxoplasmosis?

Domestic animals, particularly cats, are carriers of the infection. They, by hunting mice and eating them, become infected themselves, and then transmit the parasite cysts to humans.

As soon as you interact closely with your pet or let him sleep on the sofa, toxoplasma will immediately appear on your hands or things.

The consequences of such communication may not appear immediately, but after several months.

This is why it is so important to vaccinate and carry out preventive courses of treatment against parasites for animals living with you in your house or apartment.

The following routes of transmission of toxoplasmosis exist:

Oral
Through minor wounds on the skin
When cultivating the land
Through animals
During blood transfusion
In utero (from mother to baby in pregnant women).

Each of them is dangerous, but the last one is the most merciless. It is the transmission of helminths through the placenta that has been most often recorded in Russia in recent years. A child can become infected at different stages of pregnancy.

A cat can be a carrier of infection; if you are scratched by a cat, you are not yet at risk of toxoplasmosis.

Therefore, doctors recommend that all women undergo an examination before conceiving to determine the presence of parasites in the body. After all, a patient suffering from toxoplasmosis may not even be aware of it for many years, and only during pregnancy will the parasites become active, infecting the embryo through the blood.

In cases where Toxoplasma larvae enter the human body through the mouth, they enter the lower intestines, from where they are carried through the blood vessels to the lymph nodes. They then spread throughout all internal organs, even penetrating the human nervous system.

Such routes of infection with toxoplasmosis are called oral. By eating meat products that have undergone insufficient heat treatment, you expose yourself to infection with this disease.

Toxoplasma under a microscope

Today, many farm animals are infected with toxoplasmosis, and by eating a steak with blood, a person risks getting sick within a few hours. Experts claim that 70% of the sick “ate” Toxoplasma larvae in “dirty” foods.

In second place is the method of transmission of infection through damaged skin. Anyone can get toxoplasmosis through such infection routes. The smallest open wound is a place where various bacteria can multiply, and toxoplasma is no exception.

Cuts that appear during the cooking process or when cutting raw meat are especially dangerous.

Therefore, doctors recommend promptly treating such wounds with antiseptics and protecting them with a plaster or rubber gloves.

The causative agent of toxoplasmosis is not highly resistant to negative environmental factors. It dies when heated above 55°C and frozen, but liquid substrates keep it viable for years.

Test options for toxoplasmosis

What should you do if a woman who has a cat in her house and becomes pregnant is terribly afraid of toxoplasmosis and decides to get rid of her pet? To begin with, study everything related to the disease as a whole and the route of transmission of oocysts. The results will be in favor of the cat - in the life of the expectant mother there are much more risks associated with everyday things, nutrition, but for some reason this is kept silent by pediatricians, and all the “bumps” go to the animal.

If fears remain, you can donate blood (to a person) and test for antibody titer (Ig M and Ig G) to toxoplasmosis. The results of the study may be as follows:

Ig M antibody titer - a woman has toxoplasmosis and there is a risk of abnormal fetal development or miscarriage;
titer of Ig G and Ig M antibodies or only titer of Ig G antibodies - the woman had previously had toxoplasmosis, its symptoms were similar to those of a common cold, and now the disease is present in a chronic form and there is immunity. There will be no complications during pregnancy;
There is no antibody titer, there is no Ig G and Ig M titre - the woman is “sterile”, has never encountered Toxoplasma and may get sick.

How is Toxoplasma transmitted?

Toxoplasma enters humans mainly through the oral-fecal route. In addition to contact with the cat's litter box, the danger for children is playing in the sandbox, which stray cats use as a toilet, a toy that has been touched by the cat's paws, which have buried their own feces.

Many people are unaware that they are home to Toxoplasma. But there is something good in the bad: having become infected with Toxoplasma, the body produces antibodies against it. If a woman was infected several months before conception, her immune cells have time to develop a weapon that will protect the mother and prevent the pathogen from passing through the placental barrier to the defenseless embryo.

Contact with the litter box is not the only way to get toxoplasma from your pet. When cat feces enter the soil, they spread oocysts. Vegetables, berries, fruits are infected with oocyst. If you don’t wash your hands once, the parasite penetrates inside the person.

Prevention

Preventive measures make sense if there is a pregnant woman in the house. Testing for toxoplasmosis should be done several months before the expected conception. If a negative result is obtained, communication with the cat must be stopped. You can only work in the beds with gloves; wash vegetables and fruits thoroughly. Avoid infecting your cat with toxoplasmosis.

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Transmission of toxoplasmosis to a child during pregnancy

One of the most dangerous cases of infection with toxoplasmosis is infection of the mother with this zoonotic disease during pregnancy. It should be understood that we are talking about a primary infection, after which immunity is developed that protects against re-infection. Previous toxoplasmosis or chronic toxoplasmosis does not affect the fetus.

Note. Toxoplasmosis belongs to TORCH infections, that is, diseases that are most dangerous for the fetus during pregnancy.

Toxoplasma is able to penetrate the placental barrier and invade fetal cells, causing severe developmental abnormalities that are often incompatible with life.

Infection of the fetus with toxoplasma in early pregnancy usually leads to severe developmental disorders of the child, which, as a rule, lead to spontaneous miscarriage or fetal death.

When toxoplasmosis affects the fetus at a later stage of pregnancy, it provokes the development of severe anomalies.

The pathological process occurs in the womb; often children are born with meningoencephalitis.

Consequences of infection with toxoplasmosis at a later date: epileptic seizures, necrosis of the nervous structures of the visual organ, cataracts, mental and mental developmental disorders of varying severity, paresis, thinning of bone tissue, hydrocephalus and much more.

The risks of infection depend on the duration of pregnancy and the immune system of the expectant mother. In the first trimester, the risk of fetal infection is no more than 15%, in the second – 30%, in the third – about 70%.

Methods for treating toxoplasmosis

Toxoplasmosis in people with good immunity usually does not require treatment.

Drug therapy may be needed for persons with congenital and acquired immunodeficiency, pregnant women, children and elderly patients.

To eliminate the pathogen, antiprotozoal agents are used that can kill protozoa. These are antimalarial drugs (Pyrimethatine), sulfonamides (Sulfadiazine) and some antibiotics (Clindamycin, Spiramycin).

To improve the body's resistance, patients are prescribed immunomodulatory agents, vitamin preparations, and mineral complexes. Symptomatic treatment depends on the form of the disease. If the organ of vision is damaged, the patient receives treatment from an ophthalmologist. If the nervous system is affected, a neurologist must be involved in the treatment.

In pregnant women, after detection of toxoplasmosis, Pyrimethatine or Sulfadiazine (only after the first trimester) is used in combination with folic acid. This therapy is aimed at preventing the penetration of Toxoplasma through the placenta into the cells of the fetus.

How dangerous is the disease for a child?

Medical studies have shown that the likelihood of infection increases as pregnancy progresses. In the first trimester, the placenta is least permeable to microbes, so only in 15% of cases is Toxoplasma larvae transmitted from mother to child.

In the second trimester the probability increases to 20%. This period is considered the most dangerous. Infection of the fetus with pathogens leads to damage to the brain, central nervous system and visual organs.

Although the child’s immune system is able to cope with parasites without outside intervention, the consequences will still remain. They can be expressed in visual impairment, mental retardation and other abnormalities.

Infection of the fetus with pathogens leads to damage to the brain, central nervous system and visual organs

In the third semester of pregnancy, the probability of transmitting toxoplasmosis to the child increases to 60%. At this time, the fetus is already formed and therefore more resistant to microorganisms. There is a high probability of a child being born without the slightest developmental abnormalities, but the consequences of the disease he suffered in the womb may appear after a fairly long period of time.

During pregnancy, you should not have contact with a cat due to the likelihood of allergies in the child.

The second no less serious danger is the possibility of an allergic reaction in the baby to animal fur or secretions. Many mothers have a question about whether an allergy can develop in utero through contact with a cat during pregnancy. To do this, you need to understand the mechanism of formation of an allergic reaction.

What is an allergy: the mechanism of an allergic reaction

An allergy is a hypersensitive reaction of the immune system to a protein that acts as an allergen. When specific proteins enter the body, antibodies begin to be produced - immunoglobulins E. IgE activates mast cells and basophils, which leads to the development of an inflammatory response to the stimulus. An allergic reaction can be expressed in unpleasant, but fairly safe symptoms - runny nose, itching, redness, but life-threatening conditions can also occur - Quincke's edema and anaphylactic shock.

Allergies occur when there is repeated exposure to an allergen after sensitization has already occurred. When the immune system first contacts the protein, antibodies are produced; this process can take several days or several years, and only with subsequent contacts does a reaction occur. This is why an adult may suddenly develop an allergy to familiar foods that he has always consumed.

Can an allergy to cats develop in the prenatal period?

Can sensitization occur in the fetus in the womb? There are no reliable studies on this topic. Parents with allergies have a higher chance of having an allergic child, but it is not 100%; the baby can be born completely healthy.

If the expectant mother notices that when she comes into contact with the pet, she experiences watery eyes, itching, sneezing or coughing, then the cat should be placed in another room for several days and not touched. If the symptoms go away, this indicates an allergy. In such a situation, it would be best to give the animal to another family.

Is it possible to get infected from a cat to a person?

Being an anthropozoonosis, toxoplasmosis in domestic animals poses a potential danger to humans. The risk of infection is especially high when a sick animal releases the pathogen into the environment through saliva, nasal discharge, sneezing, or feces.

As a rule, this occurs within the first 2 to 3 weeks after a cat is infected with Toxoplasma.

Oocysts released during cat bowel movements are one of the most common ways of infecting humans. When cleaning the tray without following sanitary measures, the risk of infection increases sharply.

Often, a person becomes infected with toxoplasmosis when saliva or nasal discharge from an infected animal gets on the mucous membranes of the mouth in the initial stage of the disease.

Less commonly, a person can become infected from a furry pet when oocysts of the parasite come into contact with damaged skin and mucous membranes of the body. This can happen when caring for an infected cat.

To learn about the cases in which a person can become infected with toxoplasmosis from a cat, watch this video:

Disease transmission

The causative agent of toxoplasmosis in cats and other animals is Toxoplasma gondii. This is a common pathogen that belongs to the phylum of protozoa, the order Sporozoa.

Felines often become infected by eating disease carriers - rodents and birds. But infection can also occur from dirt that the owners bring on their shoes.

In the body of cats, pathogens undergo a sexual cycle, form oocysts, parasite eggs, which are then released into the external environment with feces. Only in the small intestine of a cat can parasites multiply.

Humans become the next carrier and intermediate “host” of T.gondii.

Transmission of parasites from cats to humans

Cats are the main source of toxoplasmosis infection. You can become infected with parasites from these cute pets after direct contact with them, as well as from contact with places where the cat lay or sat. In addition, since parasites are excreted from the cat's body in feces, you should thoroughly wash your hands after cleaning the litter box to prevent infection.

But, despite all these arguments, not every cat is a carrier of parasites and poses a danger. Basically, only street cats are infected, but if your pet comes into contact with street animals, there is still a risk of infection.

Note! The most common way to contract toxoplasmosis is through contact with an infected cat. That is why you should closely monitor your pet and, if possible, try to completely eliminate its contact with street cats.

In order to exclude the possibility of infection, you should systematically take your pet to the veterinarian for a preventive examination. If, during the examination, Toxoplasma is detected in the animal, treatment should begin immediately.

Signs of toxoplasmosis in a cat

There are three stages of the disease in the feline family:

Subacute. With it, the symptoms are not expressed at all or appear sparingly. In young animals that are well fed and not hypothermic, the signs are blurred. Only an enzyme-linked immunosorbent blood test can determine whether a cat is infected or not.
Spicy. It is characterized by nasal discharge, red eyes, and diarrhea. The pet's coat loses its shine, he refuses to eat and loses weight.
Chronic. If in the acute period the owners did not pay attention to the change in the animal’s behavior, then toxoplasmosis becomes stable and protracted. Symptoms are not expressed, and only observation of the cat’s behavior can indicate the need for treatment.

Most often, owners turn to the veterinarian during an acute course of the disease, when it is difficult not to notice that something is wrong with the pet.

How to avoid infection

Preventive measures primarily concern people with weakened immune systems and women during pregnancy who have not been previously infected.

Here are some basic safety rules:

Do not get a pet until the baby is born or your health condition improves;
If there is an animal in the house, clean its litter box on time. Do this only with gloves. Also wash your hands with soap after playing with it;
Before eating, vegetables and fruits should be thoroughly washed under running water. Don't forget to do the same with the greens;
To play with your child, choose those sandboxes that are closed with special lids or have a fence;
Always wash your hands with soap after walking. This also applies to children's toys;
Fry the meat and eggs thoroughly. Don't drink raw milk. It is recommended to prepare a casserole or other heat-treated dish from cottage cheese.

If you take a kitten home, take its feces to a veterinary clinic for tests, even if the animal was raised in a nursery and not on the street. We are not talking about street cats at all. Many people, when picking up a stray cat, forget that, in addition to worms and fleas, it also carries other parasites.

Of course, this does not mean that you need to give up on street cats; they also want love and attention, like everyone else. Such an animal just needs to be shown to a veterinarian and examined. If you do not do this or do it but not regularly, then be sure to follow all safety and prevention methods.

Toxoplasmosis can be infected very easily, but in most cases this disease is asymptomatic in humans. The risk group includes only women during pregnancy who have not previously been infected with parasites, and people with weak immunity.

Do cats feel a special state?

Cats are unique animals that subtly sense this world. At the energetic level, they sense changes in the environment, react to the mood of the owner, sense the approach of a person’s illness, and the presence of psychological problems. The same is true with pregnancy.

A pet can sense a woman’s special condition in the first weeks after conception. This phenomenon is explained by the fact that at this time significant hormonal changes occur in the body of the expectant mother, expressed in the following symptomatic manifestations:

toxicosis, accompanied by nausea, vomiting, functional digestive disorders;
slight increase in temperature;
increased frequency of urination;
change in the amount of vaginal discharge.

Cats react to such obvious signs. At this time, the pet’s behavior changes: it becomes restless and accompanies its owner almost everywhere. In addition, sensing the interesting position of a woman, cats often try to lie on the mistress’s stomach.

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Interesting to know:

Bibliography

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Brucellosis. Parasites. Link
Corbel MJ Parasitic diseases // World Health Organization. Link
Young EJ Best matches for intestinal parasites // Clinical Infectious Diseases. — 1995. Vol. 21. - P. 283-290. Link
Yushchuk N.D., Vengerov Yu.A. Infectious diseases: textbook. — 2nd edition. - M.: Medicine, 2003. - 544 p.
Prevalence of parasitic diseases among the population, 2009 / Kokolova L. M., Reshetnikov A. D., Platonov T. A., Verkhovtseva L. A.
Helminths of domestic carnivores of the Voronezh region, 2011 / Nikulin P. I., Romashov B. V.

An article for patients with a doctor-diagnosed disease. Does not replace a doctor's appointment and cannot be used for self-diagnosis.

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How not to separate from your cat and not get sick?

Is it possible to protect yourself and maintain a good relationship with a cat without parting with your pet during pregnancy? Can! Veterinarians at the RosVet VC remind that a pregnant woman needs to:

thoroughly wash vegetables, fruits and berries, even from your own garden;
do not dig in the ground without gloves (cats can leave feces with oocysts there);
do not pick up or eat food with dirty hands;
do not clean the cat litter, leaving the “honorable mission” to other family members. If there is no one, the feces are removed with a spatula, hands are in gloves and then they are washed thoroughly.

You can take your cat to an appointment with a veterinary infectious disease specialist (parasitologist), conduct a full examination and make sure that the pet is not sick. But even if she has toxoplasmosis, following basic hygiene rules will help you maintain your health and not part with your pet.

If you want to conduct a full examination of your cat, call the RosVet VC by phone: +7 (495) 256-11-11. Appointments with a veterinary infectious disease specialist (parasitologist) are available 24 hours a day. You shouldn’t succumb to general hysteria and part with your cat; most “pregnant scares” are based on ignorance and lack of basic knowledge about cat diseases and the route of their transmission to humans.