Congenital Toxoplasmosis: Time for a New Treatment Approach

Sam D Chorlton
Additional contact information
Sam D Chorlton: Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, University of British Columbia, Canada

Global Journal of Intellectual & Developmental Disabilities, 2017, vol. 2, issue 1, 8-10

Abstract: Congenital toxoplasmosis is caused by in utero infection of the fetus with the intracellular parasite Toxoplasma gondii. Upon infection, the parasite forms life-long cysts in fetal brain which are resistant to the currently accepted therapy of pyrimethamine and sulfadiazine. These cysts commonly reactivate later in life causing visual impairment through choriretinitis, and less frequently neurological impairment such as hydrocephalus, cortical atrophy, seizures and encephalopathy. New therapies have the potential to alleviate a significant burden of disease by reducing cyst burden in neonatal brain. Atovaquone is perhaps the most promising drug given its low side-effect profile, established safety and efficacy in animal models. Randomized trials are needed to evaluate it and other potential drugs as adjunctive treatment in congenital toxoplasmosis.

Keywords: Journal of Intellectual; Intellectual & Developmental; Intellectual & Developmental Disabilities; Journal of Intellectual & Developmental Disabilities; journal of intellectual disability research; journal of intellectual disabilities; journal of intellectual disability research impact factor; journal of intellectual property studies; open access publishers in usa; juniper publishers review (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://juniperpublishers.com/gjidd/pdf/GJIDD.MS.ID.555579.pdf (application/pdf)
https://juniperpublishers.com/gjidd/GJIDD.MS.ID.555579.php (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:adp:jgjidd:v:2:y:2017:i:1:p:8-10

DOI: 10.19080/GJIDD.2017.02.555579

Access Statistics for this article

Global Journal of Intellectual & Developmental Disabilities is currently edited by Sophia Mathis

More articles in Global Journal of Intellectual & Developmental Disabilities from Juniper Publishers Inc.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Robert Thomas ().