Symptoms of Toxoplasmosis
The nature of the symptoms of toxoplasmosis are related to the time of infection and the state of the immune system of the affected person. Infections after birth usually go unnoticed in healthy people. If symptoms occur, they are noticed by flu-like symptoms.
These include swollen lymph nodes (lymphadenopathy) and a general feeling of illness with fatigue and fever. In addition, there may be an enlarged spleen (splenomegaly) or a skin rash (exanthema). If people with a weak immune system are infected due to medication or certain previous illnesses such as AIDS, cysts are formed from the inflammations, which trigger symptoms.
Due to the preferential formation of cysts in the brain, these are often associated with symptoms such as seizures, headaches, imbalances or paralysis. For the child in the womb (fetus) only initial infections during pregnancy with Toxoplasma gondii are dangerous. However, not all initial infections lead to damage to the child.
The time of the initial infection with toxoplasmosis is decisive for the extent of damage to the child’s development caused by the pathogen. In general, infections in early pregnancy cause more damage than those in late pregnancy. However, the probability of a toxoplasmosis infection of the fetus increases with the age of pregnancy.
Possible consequences of toxoplasmosis during pregnancy are very diverse. They can lead to termination of the pregnancy, premature birth or physical or mental disabilities of the child. The typical symptom of congenital toxoplasmosis is an enlarged child’s head (hydrocephalus) due to increased production of cerebral fluid, calcification in the child’s brain and inflammation of the retina (chorioretinitis).
However, only 10 out of 100 infected children show these symptoms. Ultrasound examinations of pregnant women also reveal an enlarged fetal head (hydrocephalus), an enlarged liver (hepatomegaly), an increased accumulation of abdominal fluid (ascites) and symptoms of an effusion in the pericardium (pericardial effusion). Much more frequently, the course of toxoplasmosis is observed, which only becomes noticeable after birth. These children become conspicuous with a delay in physical and mental development, a tendency to convulsions (epilepsy) or an inflammation of the retina (chorioretinitis), which can lead to blindness.
