Toxoplasmosis

Toxoplasmosis

Toxoplasmosis (toxo) is an infection caused by a single-celled parasite called Toxoplasma gondii. The infection is most commonly acquired from contact with cats and their feces or with raw or undercooked meat

wayes of infection

-touching your hands to your mouth after gardening, cleaning a cat's litter box, or anything that came into contact with cat feces
-eating raw or partly cooked meat, especially pork, lamb, or venison
-touching your hands to your mouth after contact with raw or undercooked meat
-organ transplantation or transfusion
symptoms
Although people infected with toxoplasmosis are often unaware of having this disease, typical symptoms of toxo are flulike symptoms including swollen lymph nodes and muscle aches and pains that last from a few days to several weeks. If your immune system is normal, you cannot get the infection again.

Toxoplasmosis testes

Serological tests measure "antibodies" against Toxoplasma.
Being infected with the parasite Toxoplasma gondii leads to some weeks of parasitaemia, that means, that there are many parasites in the blood (in that time they can be passed on to the unborn baby).

Then the body starts to produce "antibodies" (which can be found in the blood and be measured in serological tests).
They "fight" against the parasites and control the disease, no more parasites circle in the blood. (and the infection can not be passed on to the baby any longer)
There are some groups of antibodies.(=Immunoglobulines[Ig]: IgG, IgM, IgA, IgM, IgE).
For diagnosis of Toxoplasmosis usually IgG and IgM (in some cases: IgA) are measured.
Before there happened an infection no antibodies are found. IgG (and, of course, IgM, .. ) is "negative".
When an infection happens, IgG and IgM get "positive".

IgM are "positive" during acute infection and stay positive for a limited time (depending the methods of test You use). (Maybe 6 months to a year)
IgG-titers rise during an acute infection, sink slowly again, but stay positive, and protect against another parasitaemia (and protects so the unborn baby).

That means, if You find (stable) IgG and no IgM: there had been the infection longer time ago, and there is protection now (and in the future). ("latent infection")
If there had been negative testing for Toxoplasmosis earlier in pregnancy and positive testing later on ("seroconversion"): An acute infection occoured!
If there are IgG and IgM: the infection happened short time ago, further investigation can tell about when.If the infection occurred during

pregnancy:

anti-parasitic drugs should be taken until birth to reduce the risk of a fetal infection and
the fetus (unborn baby) should be tested