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- Title
Is COVID-19 associated with latent toxoplasmosis?
- Authors
Ghaffari, Salman; Kalantari, Narges; Gorgani-Firouzjaee, Tahmineh; Bayani, Masomeh; Jalali, Farzaneh; Daroonkola, Meysam Aghajani
- Abstract
The present study aimed to evaluate the possible association between coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) and latent Toxoplasma gondii infection in a group of patients and healthy individuals. Blood samples were obtained from 269 PCR-positive COVID-19 patients. The serum was separated and tested for the existence of anti-T. gondii antibodies (IgG) using a commercial enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay kit. The prevalence of latent toxoplasmosis between a subgroup of the patients (aged under 55 years old) and COVID-19 negative individuals was compared. Anti-T. gondii antibodies were found in 226/269 (84.0%) patients with COVID-19. Anti-Toxoplasma antibodies were detected in 72/91 (79.1%) cases and 96/123 (78.0%) COVID-19 negative individuals (odd ratio = 1.1; 95% confidence interval: 0.55–2.07, P = 0.85). The median and interquartile range (IQR) of the IgG titer were not statistically significant different between case (97.3 [31.0–133.5]) and control groups (34.4 [13.0–144.5]) (P = 0.10). These findings demonstrated that latent Toxoplasma infection is prevalent amongst the COVID-19 patients. It also did not find any significant association between chronic toxoplasmosis and COVID-19.
- Subjects
COVID-19; TOXOPLASMOSIS; ENZYME-linked immunosorbent assay; IMMUNOGLOBULIN G
- Publication
Environmental Science & Pollution Research, 2021, Vol 28, Issue 47, p67886
- ISSN
0944-1344
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1007/s11356-021-17126-w