Knowledge and practices regarding toxoplasmosis in housewives: A cross sectional study in a northern Mexican city.

Nadia Velázquez-Hernández
Ana Yuliana Avilés Ávila
Manuel Arturo Rivas-González
Selma Paola Delgado-González
Gustavo Alexis Alvarado-Félix
Ángel Osvaldo Alvarado-Félix
Isabel Beristain-Garcia
Cosme Alvarado-Esquivel

Open link

Publication date

January 2019

DOI

10.1371/journal.pone.0222094

Publisher

Public Library of Science (PLoS)

Journal

PLoS ONE

Abstract

We aimed to determine the knowledge and practices regarding toxoplasmosis among housewives in the northern Mexican city of Durango. One hundred eighty-five women (mean age: 41.27 ± 12.40 years old) with an occupation of housewife were studied. A self-administered questionnaire was used. This tool included items about the parasite Toxoplasma gondii, its transmission routes, general clinical, diagnostic, and treatment aspects of toxoplasmosis, and practices to avoid infection. A minority (<10%) of women knew about the parasite, the disease, how the transmission occurs, the clinical manifestations, how an infection is diagnosed, the treatment, and how to avoid toxoplasmosis. Some women knew that cats can transmit T. gondii infection (20%), and...