Epidemiology of toxoplasmosis in Chile. VII. Prevalence of human infection investigated by means of indirect hemagglutination reaction in the regions X, Xi and XIi
Schenone, H.; Sandoval, L.; Contreras, M.C.; Salinas, P.; Rojas, A.
Boletin Chileno de Parasitologia 45(3-4): 77-79
1990
ISSN/ISBN: 0365-9402 PMID: 2152363 Document Number: 362807
In pursuing the studies on the epidemiology of toxoplasmosis in Chile, a recent series of surveys have been undertaken in 1983-1990 in 4 urban and 22 periurban-rural localities from regions X, XI and XII of the country (39 degrees 38'-56 degrees 00' South lat.). An indirect hemagglutination test (IHAT) for toxoplasmosis was performed to 6,438 randomly selected apparently healthy persons. The age of the surveyed persons (2,779 males and 3,659 females) varied between 1 and 93 years. The number of examined persons represents a 0.61% of the total population of the three studied regions. IHAT titers of 1: > or = 16 were considered as positive. The general prevalence for positive IHAT was 46.3% (47.4% in men and 45.4% in women). Similarly to other regions, a higher proportion of positive reactors was detected in urban sections (49.0%) than in periurban-rural ones (40.3%). An increase of prevalence with age was also observed. Only 8 (0.12%) persons presented IHAT titers higher than 1:1000.