Seroprevalence Study of Brucellosis and ToxoplasmosisInfections Among Women in Ardabil, Iran

Background and Aim : Brucellosis or Malta fever is an endemic disease in many countries,including Iran. This bacterial disease is the most common cause of stillbirth in pregnant animalsin addition to the severe complications in the affected population. On the other hand, Toxoplasmagondii is one of the most common causes of parasitic infections of human throughout the world.This protozoan is the causative agent of acute, chronic and congenital toxoplasmosis and as themost important infectious factor of stillbirth in the first trimester of pregnancy in humans. Themain purpose of this study was to evaluate the serum levels of anti-Toxoplasma gondii IgM, IgGand Brucella antibodies in the serum of blood donor women in Ardabil, Iran.Methods : Blood samples were obtained from ۵۵۰ blood donor women in Ardabil by randomsampling. Serum levels of anti-Toxoplasma gondii IgM and IgG were determined by ELISAtechnique and brucellosis infection was assessed using Wright and Wright's agglutination tests,respectively.Results : Out of ۵۵۰ samples, ۱۹ cases (۳.۵%) were positive for anti-Toxoplasma gondii IgM and۱۹۷ cases (۳۵.۸۲%) for anti-Toxoplasma gondii IgG, respectively. On the other hand, the resultsof Wright's test and agglutination test showed that ۴۴ cases (۸%) of the studied individuals wereinfected by brucellosis. Totally, ۳.۵% of the studied population were infected simultaneously bybrucellosis and acute toxoplasmosis (IgM positive) and ۲.۹% by brucellosis and chronictoxoplasmosis (IgG positive).Conclusion : According to the results of this study, it is concluded that toxoplasmosis andbrucellosis are prevalent among women of Ardabil. Therefore, monitoring of these infections isrecommended in women especially during pregnancy.

کلیدواژه ها:

Toxoplasma gondii ، Toxoplasmosis ، Brucellosis ، Women ، ELISA ، Wright test