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THE INCIDENCE OF TOXOPLASMA ANTIBODIES IN MENTAL HOSPITAL PATIENTS
Author(s) -
COOK IAN,
DERRICK E. H.
Publication year - 1961
Publication title -
australasian annals of medicine
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.596
H-Index - 70
eISSN - 1445-5994
pISSN - 0571-9283
DOI - 10.1111/imj.1961.10.2.137
Subject(s) - incidence (geometry) , toxoplasmosis , medicine , serology , antibody , pediatrics , toxoplasma gondii , population , mental deficiency , immunology , psychiatry , physics , environmental health , optics
Summary Of 342 inmates of a mental hospital, 19 possessed complement‐fixing and 60 dye‐test antibodies against Toxoplasma gondii . The incidence of complement‐fixing antibodies was less in the hospital patients than in the general population. This suggests that the risk of post‐natal infection with Toxoplasma was less in the hospital environment than outside. Among 116 children with congenital mental deficiency of unspecified ætiology, there was serological evidence that Toxoplasma was a possible cause in eight, or 7%, but in none was this confirmed by the presence of chorio‐retinitis or cerebral calcification. In the patients studied, toxoplasmosis was at most only a rare cause of congenital mental deficiency.