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. 2021 Dec;28(47):67886-67890.
doi: 10.1007/s11356-021-17126-w. Epub 2021 Oct 25.

Is COVID-19 associated with latent toxoplasmosis?

Salman Ghaffari  1 , Narges Kalantari  2 , Tahmineh Gorgani-Firouzjaee  3 , Masomeh Bayani  3 , Farzaneh Jalali  4 , Meysam Aghajani Daroonkola  5
Affiliations

Is COVID-19 associated with latent toxoplasmosis?

Salman Ghaffari et al. Environ Sci Pollut Res Int. 2021 Dec.

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.

Keywords: COVID-19; Seroprevalence; T. gondii; Toxoplasmosis.

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Conflict of interest statement

We declare no competing interests.

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