Dr. Esteban Kosak 
Toxoplasmosis is a disease because of a parasite infection; it is a protozoan, Toxoplasma gondii. This infection could prompt severe complications in high-risk groups.
Toxoplasmosis is a widespread infection in the United States. The estimation is that it affects a little over ten percent of the population aging six years or more. Yet, the scientific community thinks this number is an underestimation of its real frequency.
Moreover, worldwide, this infection is even more frequent. In some countries, it infects half or more of the population. This situation is truly something to worry about as the infection could prompt several complications.
People can acquire the parasite in several ways. The possible routes of infection include foodborne, animal-to-human, mother-to-child, and rare but possible situations. Eating contaminated food is a major source of infection. However, cats also play an important role in spreading the disease.
Importantly, when pregnant women acquire this infection right before or during pregnancy. The infection can pass to the unborn child. Although the woman might not experience any symptoms, the babies could develop severe eyes and brain or nervous system complications. In pregnant women who got the infection before pregnancy, they have a shallow risk of passing the disease to their children.
Another group of importance is people without a healthy immune system. People with AIDS, organ transplantation, and some cancers or their treatments; all are at risk of having complications because of toxoplasmosis. These complications could be very severe and even prompt death.
In high-risk populations, it is mandatory to screen for this infection. There are several possible exams for diagnosing the disease, either in the present or finding out if someone had it in the past.
People with a healthy immune system acquire the disease and develop flu-like symptoms in a few cases. However, if their immune system decreases in function over time for whatever reason, the disease could arise and cause complications.
This tool is a Toxoplasmosis Symptoms Checker. It gathers the most important signs, symptoms, and risk factors for the infection.
When this disease affects people with a healthy immune system, it barely causes symptoms. Although some complications can appear on them too, they are infrequent.
The story is very different for high-risk groups like pregnant women or people with a weak immune system. They are at risk of developing severe toxoplasmosis or its complications, and pregnant women are at risk of passing the disease to their children. The babies that acquire this infection early in life could have multiple life-threatening or long-term complications.
This tool gathers the most important signs, symptoms, and risk factors for toxoplasmosis. Therefore, the tool will tell anybody who uses it the likelihood of their symptoms because of toxoplasmosis. This tool could also result in positive if someone has several risk factors for this infection, including high-risk groups.
Remember that this tool does not replace an adequate assessment from a doctor or the necessary blood and tissue examinations to diagnose the disease. This disease’s symptoms also resemble several other conditions, which are only possible to differentiate from through several exams.
So, this tool would only tell about someone’s risk of having toxoplasmosis, its symptoms or determine high-risk patients. Using the tool is free and would only take a few minutes.
Prevention of this disease is possible, thanks to several measures. Hence, knowing which persons are at higher risk or already presenting symptoms is of major importance to prevent health issues.
- Question of
Are you older than forty years?
- Yes
- No
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Do you work at a slaughterhouse?
- Yes
- No
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Do you have been a recipient of a solid organ or bone marrow transplant?
- Yes
- No
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Do you have been diagnosed with cancer, especially blood cancer like leukemia or lymphoma?
- Yes
- No
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Do you are currently under treatment for cancer?
- Yes
- No
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Do you have been diagnosed with HIV infection?
- Yes
- No
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If you answered yes to the last question, do you take treatment right now for your HIV infection? (It would comprise any of the highly active antiretroviral therapy available and a formal indication by your infectious diseases physician)
- Yes
- No
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Do you have been diagnosed with AIDS?
- Yes
- No
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Do you are pregnant?
- Yes
- No
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Do you are within your first three months of pregnancy?
- Yes
- No
- Question of
Do you are within the last three months of your pregnancy? (A typical pregnancy lasts nine months)
- Yes
- No
- Question of
Throughout your pregnancy, did you get tested for Toxoplasmosis?
- Yes
- No
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In this test, did it show an IgM positive either with or without IgG positive?
- Yes
- No
- Question of
Do you drink unpasteurized or raw goat’s milk?
- Yes
- No
- Question of
Do you tend to eat undercooked meat (especially pork, lamb, and venison) or shellfish (like oysters, clams, and mussels)?
- Yes
- No
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Do you have a cat, and you tend to clean the cat’s litter box every time more than 24 hours than you did last time?
- Yes
- No
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Do you have a cat, and it tends to be outdoor?
- Yes
- No
- Question of
Do you tend to not washing your hands after gardening or eating unwashed fruits or vegetables from a garden?
- Yes
- No
- Question of
Do you take all the necessary protection measures (using disposable gloves and wash your hands thoroughly with soap and warm water afterward) when cleaning the cat’s litter box to not contact its feces?
- Yes
- No
- Question of
Do you have a fever, malaise, night sweats, and/or muscle pain right now? (for defining a fever, preferably use a thermometer which needs to shows more than 101,3 °F or touch your forehead and determine if the temperature is increased)
- Yes
- No
- Question of
Do you feel bumps under your’s neck skin that size more than one cm but less than three? (Importantly, these bumps are not a skin rash but more or less like a node under the skin)
- Yes
- No
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Do you have been diagnosed with cancer, or you got treatment for it? Do you have been an organ recipient? If you answer yes to at least one out of two questions, then; do you have headaches (if you had headaches in the past, click yes if they feel like a new kind of headache)? Do you find it difficult to walk or speak normally? Do you have parts of your body moving when they should not? Are you having problems with your sight? Do you are having memory problems or too many mood swings? (If you answered yes to one of either cancer or organ transplant questions and at least one of the questions about symptoms, click yes)
- Yes
- No
- Question of
Do you have been diagnosed with cancer, or you got treatment for it? Do you have been an organ recipient? If you answer yes to at least one out of two questions, then; do you have a fever? Do you have shortness of breath? Do you have a dry cough? (for defining a fever, preferably use a thermometer which needs to shows more than 101,3 °F or touch your forehead and determine if the temperature is increased) (If you answered yes to one of either cancer or organ transplant questions and at least one of the questions about symptoms, click yes)
- Yes
- No
- Question of
Do you have been diagnosed with either HIV infection or AIDS? Then, do you have problems with your memory, mood swings, problems concentrating or performing typical tasks? Do you have parts of your body moving when they should not? Do you have difficulty speaking or walking normally? Do you feel weakness in any part of your body? (Answer yes only if your answer was positive for the HIV/AIDS question and at least one of the symptoms)
- Yes
- No
- Question of
Do you have been diagnosed with either HIV infection or AIDS? Then, do you have a fever? Do you have shortness of breath? Do you have a dry cough? (for defining a fever, preferably use a thermometer which needs to shows more than 101,3 °F or touch your forehead and determine if the temperature is increased) (If you answered yes to the HIV/AIDs question and at least one of the questions about symptoms, click yes)
- Yes
- No
- Question of
Are you having trouble with your vision? Do you have eye pain? Do you have blurred vision? Does watching the light cause you eye discomfort? Do you have red-eye? Do you see black spots? Do you have eye floaters? (If your answer is yes to any of those questions, click yes)
- Yes
- No
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