ABSTRACT
The most serious form of Toxoplasma gondii infection, congenital toxoplasmosis occurs when a non-immune woman is affected during the pregnancy. Thus, having knowledge about Toxoplasma seroprevalence among women during childbearing ages and /or pregnancy is of public health importance. Therefore, this study was performed to determine the seroprevalence of Toxoplasma antibodies during the first trimester of pregnancy in women aged 15-45 years referred to the health centers of the province. In this descriptive-analytical study, 384 serum samples from pregnant women aged 15-45 years during the first trimester of their pregnancies were examined and tittered for anti-Toxoplasma antibody using Indirect Immunofluorescent Antibody [IFA] method. Using X[2] test, the data were analyzed. Total anti-Toxoplasma antibodies were found in 106 women out of 384 [27.6%], with serum levels ranged between 1:20 and 1:2560. The highest rate of anti-Toxoplasma antibodies was found in pregnant women aged 40-45 years [50%] [p<0.05]. There was a past history of spontaneous abortion in 29.3% of the sero-positive subjects. Also, 38.5% of the sero-positive women had a history of cat keeping in their house or had a close contact with the animal [p<0.05]. There was also a history of lamb meat consumption in 82.2% of sero-positive subjects [p<0.05], while the rate of anti-Toxoplasma antibodies was 65% for raw vegetables consumers. The highest and the lowest rates of anti-Toxoplasma sero-prevalence occurred in Shahrekord [51.9%] and Farsan [6%] districts, respectively. This rate was also 25% and 29.5% for urban and rural areas, respectively. The findings showed that a large proportion of pregnant women from this area are at risk of infection with Toxoplasma and may be infected during next months of their pregnancies or in their further pregnancies