Toxoplasmosis primary prevention
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Editor-In-Chief: C. Michael Gibson, M.S., M.D. [1]
Overview
Effective measures for the primary prevention of toxoplasmosis include general sanitation and food safety steps such as hands should be washed well with soap and water after outdoor activities, especially before you eat or while handing preparation of food. A woman with no previous exposure should avoid handling raw meat, exposure to cat faeces, and gardening (cat faeces are common in garden soil).
Primary Prevention
There are several general sanitation and food safety steps to reduce the chances of becoming infected with Toxoplasma:
- Gloves should be worn when gardening or doing anything outdoors that involves handling soil.
- Cats, which may pass the parasite in their feces, often use gardens and sandboxes as litter boxes.
- Hands should be washed well with soap and water after outdoor activities, especially before you eat or prepare any food.
- When preparing raw meat, cutting boards, sinks, knives, and other utensils that might have touched the raw meat should be washed thoroughly with soap and hot water to avoid cross-contaminating other foods. Hands should be washed well with soap and water after handling raw meat.
- All meat should be cooked thoroughly; that is, to an internal temperature of 160° F
Safety precautions to avoid being exposed to Toxoplasma:
- Keep your cat healthy and help prevent it from becoming infected with Toxoplasma. Keep your cat indoors and feed it dry or canned cat food rather than allowing it to have access to wild birds and rodents or to food scraps.
- A cat can become infected by eating infected prey or by eating raw or undercooked meat infected with the parasite. Do not bring a new cat into your house that might have spent time out of doors or might have been fed raw meat.
- Avoid stray cats and kittens and the area they have adopted as their "home." Your veterinarian can answer any other questions you may have regarding your cat and risk for toxoplasmosis.
- Have someone who is healthy and not pregnant change your cat's litter box daily. If this is not possible, wear gloves and clean the litter box every day, because the parasite found in cat feces needs one or more days after being passed to become infectious. Wash your hands well with soap and water afterwards.[1]
Pregnancy Precautions
- For congenital toxoplasmosis, a special form in which an unborn child is infected via the placenta, a positive antibody titer indicates previous exposure and immunity and largely ensures the unborn baby's safety.
- If a woman receives her first exposure to toxoplasmosis while pregnant, the baby is at particular risk. A woman with no previous exposure should avoid handling raw meat, exposure to cat faeces, and gardening (cat faeces are common in garden soil).
- Most cats are not actively shedding oocysts and so are not a danger, but the risk may be reduced further by having the litterbox emptied daily (oocysts require longer than a single day to become infective), and by having someone else empty the litterbox.