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Zoonotic Project - Calen Jarman

What Is Toxoplasmosis?

Toxoplasmosis is a parasitic infection that infects a large proportion of the world's population but rarely causes disease. Certain people, however, are at high risk of severe or life-threatening disease from this parasite. They include infants who are infected at birth, people with AIDS, people with cancer, and people who have had bone marrow or organ transplantation.


Symptoms

Usual:

- Painless swelling of the lymph nodes

- Headache

- Malaise (a general sick feeling)

- Fatigue

- Low-grade fever

People with weakened immune systems (especially AIDS)

- Disturbances in mental functions, especially disorientation, difficulty concentrating, or

behavioral change

- Fever

- Headache

- Siezures

- Disturbances in nerve function, especially abnormal movements, difficulty walking,

difficulty speaking and partial loss of vision


How Is It Transmitted

When human beings get Toxoplasmosis, they usually get it by eating poorly cooked meat, specifically mutton, venison, or even from drinking raw milk that’s contaminated with “Toxoplasma gondii”. When cooking meat, 2 ways that should destroy the parasite, are both cooking the inside (temperature at about 70°C or 160°F), or even freezing it (at about -18°C or 0°F).


How To Treat Humans

Medical advice should be sought if infection is suspected. The need for and the length of treatment depends on the severity of the infection or the possibility of damage to vital organs. Toxoplasmosis is treated primarily with antibacterial and antiparasitic drugs for about four weeks.


Long-term Effects📷

“However, when we take into account the hundreds of thousands of deaths that occur due to the increased probability of traffic accidents, working accidents, suicides, and possibly also other side effects of the infection,” maybe this supposed “’asymptomatic’ latent toxoplasma infection [that has infested one in four Americans] could easily take malaria down

 
 
 

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© 2021 by Jaclynn Engen

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