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A dedicated surveillance network for congenital toxoplasmosis in Greece, 2006-2009: assessment of the results

BACKGROUND: Toxoplasmosis is caused by infection with the protozoan parasite Toxoplasma gondii. Acute infections in pregnant women may be transmitted to the fetus and cause severe illness. The purpose of this study was to establish a dedicated surveillance network (DSN) for congenital toxoplasmosis...

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Autores principales: Aptouramani, Maria, Theodoridou, Maria, Syrogiannopoulos, George, Mentis, Andreas, Papaevangelou, Vasiliki, Gaitana, Katerina, Daponte, Alexandros, Hadjichristodoulou, Christos
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: BioMed Central 2012
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3533839/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23173875
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1471-2458-12-1019
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author Aptouramani, Maria
Theodoridou, Maria
Syrogiannopoulos, George
Mentis, Andreas
Papaevangelou, Vasiliki
Gaitana, Katerina
Daponte, Alexandros
Hadjichristodoulou, Christos
author_facet Aptouramani, Maria
Theodoridou, Maria
Syrogiannopoulos, George
Mentis, Andreas
Papaevangelou, Vasiliki
Gaitana, Katerina
Daponte, Alexandros
Hadjichristodoulou, Christos
author_sort Aptouramani, Maria
collection PubMed
description BACKGROUND: Toxoplasmosis is caused by infection with the protozoan parasite Toxoplasma gondii. Acute infections in pregnant women may be transmitted to the fetus and cause severe illness. The purpose of this study was to establish a dedicated surveillance network (DSN) for congenital toxoplasmosis (CT) in Greece, in order to assess the birth prevalence of CT. METHODS: A DSN of thirty clinicians was established for reporting CT cases from hospitals throughout Greece. The clinicians were selected on the basis that there was a high possibility the suspected cases would be referred to them from district hospitals or private clinics. Suspected cases of CT were reported on a monthly basis with a zero reporting card during a surveillance period from April 2006 to December 2009. A questionnaire was sent for any suspected case to record information including demographic parameters, clinical signs and symptoms and laboratory results. Serological and molecular confirmation of cases was performed by the Pasteur Hellenic Institute. All newborns suspected of CT received treatment and were serologically and clinically followed up for one year. RESULTS: The monthly response rate reached 100%, although only after reminders sent to 65% of the participant physicians. Sixty-three suspected CT cases were recorded by the DSN during the study period including fourteen confirmed and seven probable cases. Ten cases (47.6%) presented with symptoms at birth. Chorioretinitis was the most prominent manifestation, occurring in five symptomatic CT cases (50%). No other symptoms appeared by the end of the one year clinical follow up. No case was recorded by the existing surveillance system of the Hellenic Center of Disease Control and Prevention (HCDCP) during the same time period. Birth prevalence was estimated at 0.45, 0.51 and 0.51 per 10,000 births for 2007, 2008 and 2009 respectively. The incidence rate of symptomatic CT at birth was estimated at 0.10 cases per 10,000 births per year in Greece (for the period 2007–2009). CONCLUSION: The DSN for CT proved to be more sensitive than the classical notification system, easy in application and very efficient in reporting rare diseases such as CT. Similar DSNs could be used to provide useful information on other rare diseases.
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spelling pubmed-35338392013-01-03 A dedicated surveillance network for congenital toxoplasmosis in Greece, 2006-2009: assessment of the results Aptouramani, Maria Theodoridou, Maria Syrogiannopoulos, George Mentis, Andreas Papaevangelou, Vasiliki Gaitana, Katerina Daponte, Alexandros Hadjichristodoulou, Christos BMC Public Health Research Article BACKGROUND: Toxoplasmosis is caused by infection with the protozoan parasite Toxoplasma gondii. Acute infections in pregnant women may be transmitted to the fetus and cause severe illness. The purpose of this study was to establish a dedicated surveillance network (DSN) for congenital toxoplasmosis (CT) in Greece, in order to assess the birth prevalence of CT. METHODS: A DSN of thirty clinicians was established for reporting CT cases from hospitals throughout Greece. The clinicians were selected on the basis that there was a high possibility the suspected cases would be referred to them from district hospitals or private clinics. Suspected cases of CT were reported on a monthly basis with a zero reporting card during a surveillance period from April 2006 to December 2009. A questionnaire was sent for any suspected case to record information including demographic parameters, clinical signs and symptoms and laboratory results. Serological and molecular confirmation of cases was performed by the Pasteur Hellenic Institute. All newborns suspected of CT received treatment and were serologically and clinically followed up for one year. RESULTS: The monthly response rate reached 100%, although only after reminders sent to 65% of the participant physicians. Sixty-three suspected CT cases were recorded by the DSN during the study period including fourteen confirmed and seven probable cases. Ten cases (47.6%) presented with symptoms at birth. Chorioretinitis was the most prominent manifestation, occurring in five symptomatic CT cases (50%). No other symptoms appeared by the end of the one year clinical follow up. No case was recorded by the existing surveillance system of the Hellenic Center of Disease Control and Prevention (HCDCP) during the same time period. Birth prevalence was estimated at 0.45, 0.51 and 0.51 per 10,000 births for 2007, 2008 and 2009 respectively. The incidence rate of symptomatic CT at birth was estimated at 0.10 cases per 10,000 births per year in Greece (for the period 2007–2009). CONCLUSION: The DSN for CT proved to be more sensitive than the classical notification system, easy in application and very efficient in reporting rare diseases such as CT. Similar DSNs could be used to provide useful information on other rare diseases. BioMed Central 2012-11-22 /pmc/articles/PMC3533839/ /pubmed/23173875 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1471-2458-12-1019 Text en Copyright ©2012 Aptouramani et al.; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0 This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
spellingShingle Research Article
Aptouramani, Maria
Theodoridou, Maria
Syrogiannopoulos, George
Mentis, Andreas
Papaevangelou, Vasiliki
Gaitana, Katerina
Daponte, Alexandros
Hadjichristodoulou, Christos
A dedicated surveillance network for congenital toxoplasmosis in Greece, 2006-2009: assessment of the results
title A dedicated surveillance network for congenital toxoplasmosis in Greece, 2006-2009: assessment of the results
title_full A dedicated surveillance network for congenital toxoplasmosis in Greece, 2006-2009: assessment of the results
title_fullStr A dedicated surveillance network for congenital toxoplasmosis in Greece, 2006-2009: assessment of the results
title_full_unstemmed A dedicated surveillance network for congenital toxoplasmosis in Greece, 2006-2009: assessment of the results
title_short A dedicated surveillance network for congenital toxoplasmosis in Greece, 2006-2009: assessment of the results
title_sort dedicated surveillance network for congenital toxoplasmosis in greece, 2006-2009: assessment of the results
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3533839/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23173875
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1471-2458-12-1019
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