title: Seroepidemiological study of Toxoplasma gondii infection in the rural area Okcheon-gun, Korea.
abstract: There have been some reports about the prevalence of anti-Toxoplasma gondii antibody among Koreans, and most of all data were taken from patients visiting hospitals. However, the epidemiological data of the community-based study in Korea are rare. This study was performed to evaluate the seroprevalence of toxoplasmosis among the inhabitants of the rural area Okcheon-gun, Korea. A total of 1,109 serum samples (499 males, 610 females) were examined for the IgG antibodies by ELISA. To set up the cut-off point for ELISA, we used a commercial latex agglutination (LA) kit. The sensitivity and specificity of ELISA against LA test were 89.5%, and 98.6% respectively. Among 1,109 sera, 6.9% showed seropositivity by ELISA. The positive rates of males and females were 6.0% and 7.2%, respectively. However, there were no significant differences between sexes. Comparing the age groups, the highest seropositive rate showed in the seventies or higher, and their rates had a tendency to increase with age (0.05 < p < 0.3). These results revealed that the seroprevalence of toxoplasmosis in rural inhabitants is similar to previous reports in Korea; however we need further investigation to clarify the prevalence of toxoplasmosis in the general population.
authors.affiliation: Department of Parasitology, College of Medicine, Chungnam National University, Taejon 301-131, Korea. yhalee@cnu.ac.kr
authors.forename: Y H
authors.initials: YH
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.forename: H J
authors.initials: HJ
authors.lastname: Noh
authors.forename: O S
authors.initials: OS
authors.lastname: Hwang
authors.forename: S K
authors.initials: SK
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.forename: D W
authors.initials: DW
authors.lastname: Shin
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D000368:Aged; D000818:Animals; D000913:Antibodies, Protozoan / Q000097:blood; D004797:Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007723:Korea / Q000453:epidemiology; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D015995:Prevalence; D012424:Rural Population; D016036:Seroepidemiologic Studies; D014122:Toxoplasma / Q000276:immunology; D014123:Toxoplasmosis / Q000453:epidemiology*
chemical_list: D000913:Antibodies, Protozoan