May 28 2024University of Chicago An inexpensive, accurate test that detects infections with the parasite Toxoplasma gondii can provide results within 30 minutes from a finger-prick in a doctor's office or within an hour from a small blood sample tested in a local medical laboratory.
"Without proper diagnosis and medications, acute toxoplasmosis in the fetus can be lethal or lead to premature birth," said co-corresponding author Martine Wallon, MD, of the Institut des agents infectieux and Hôpital de la Croix-Rousse in France. "In newborns, it can cause microcephaly, hydrocephalus, damage and inflammation in the brain, heart, lungs and eyes, and enlargement of the liver and spleen.
The research analyzes 12 new individual studies conducted by scientists in the United States, France and Colombia. Researchers examined the feasibility of using the ICT in multiple clinical circumstances and types of medical care as well as how it was perceived by patients, families and front-line health care workers.
The paper includes collation of the new, previously unpublished research with earlier studies from the University of Chicago, Stanford University and the Palo Alto Medical Foundation in the US, France, Morocco and Tunisia, revealing the test to be more than 97.5% , 99% sensitive and 100% specific on a large scale and in multiple countries and settings.
The $4 to $10 test meets all the World Health Organization ASSURED criteria and is already being used in Europe and other countries including Martinique, French Guiana and Morocco. The lack of screening in the U.S is partly due to the problems this study resolves, although additional educational programs are needed because of the misperception that the infection is unpreventable and untreatable.
Once the microscopic, single-celled T. gondii establishes itself in the human body, it makes its way to the brain where it survives life-long in a latent stage that currently is untreatable. Roughly two billion people harbor this parasite in their brains, and scientists are discovering that the parasite may cause or exacerbate illnesses not previously recognized as associated with this infection.