Awareness and infection of Toxoplasma gondii in married childbearing wom-en in Chengde Region / 中国血吸虫病防治杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective To understand Toxoplasma gondii infection and awareness condition of married childbearing women in Chengde Region so as to provide the evidence for the establishment of control measures. Methods Totally 733 married childbearing women who took physical examination in Chengde Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine from July to December in 2013 were investigated by questionnaire to understand the awareness condition on T. gondii infection then 490 women among them from 3 counties and 2 districts were randomly chosen to detect the Toxoplasma antibodies by ELISA. Results A total of 733 questionnaires were returned and 126 women knew related knowledge about T. gondii infection and the awareness rate was 17.19% 126/733 . Sixty-three women were determined as infected cases and the infection rate was 12.86% 63/490 . The infection rates of the women who with higher educational level working as medical staff and living in urban were lower and the awareness rates of them were higher. Conclusions The infection rate of T. gondii among the married childbearing women in Chengde Region is high and the awareness rate of them is low. In order to decrease the infection rate as well as to increase the awareness rate of the population the health education should be strengthened.