The global burden of congenital toxoplasmosis: a systematic review.

By P. Torgerson, P. Mastroiacovo. Bulletin of the World Health Organization, 2013

654 citations recorded by the source corpus.

OBJECTIVE To estimate the global burden of congenital toxoplasmosis (CT), which results from infection of pregnant women with Toxoplasma gondii. METHODS The authors systematically searched 9 major databases for published and unpublished sources and established direct contact with the authors of source materials. Searches were country-specific. To be included, studies had to report on the incidence of CT, on positivity to Toxoplasma-specific IgM in infants and pregnant women (including seroconversion results) or on positivity to Toxoplasma-specific IgG in the general population. Various modelling techniques were used, depending on the country-specific data available, to estimate the CT incidence and burden in each country. These data were then synthesized into an estimate of the global incidence of CT and of the global burden of CT in disability-adjusted life years (DALYs). FINDINGS The global annual incidence of congenital toxoplasmosis was estimated to be 190,100 cases (95% credible interval, CI: 179,300-206,300). This was equivalent to a burden of 1.20 million DALYs (95% CI: 0.76-1.90). High burdens were seen in South America and in some Middle Eastern and low-income countries. CONCLUSION Congenital toxoplasmosis poses a substantial burden of poor health globally. Toxoplasmosis should be included in future updates of the global burden of disease and the corresponding data should be used to support public health interventions to reduce disease burden.

Subfields: Parasitology, Physiology

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/95d9802a31c1bc8e78444fab6c5655d7b70aa098

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1. A. Havelaar
2. P. Torgerson
3. B. Devleesschauwer
4. N. Praet
5. M. Kirk
6. Niko Speybroeck
7. A. L. Willingham
8. H. Gibb

Citations in the corpus

• World Health Organization Estimates of the Global and Regional Disease Burden of 11 Foodborne Parasitic Diseases, 2010: A Data Synthesis (2015, methodology): “Further details of the methodology, inclusion criteria, all the source material, PRISMA statement and the modelling techniques used are available directly in the systematic review of the global burden of congenital toxoplasmosis or the associated on line supplementary information, both accessible th”
• World Health Organization Global Estimates and Regional Comparisons of the Burden of Foodborne Disease in 2010 (2015, methodology): “Detailed descriptions of methods to estimate incidence and mortality of all 31 hazards can be found in papers in the collection on enteric diseases [11], parasitic diseases [18], and chemicals and toxins [19].”