Talk:Toxoplasmosis/Archive 1

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Archive 1

Feces/ faeces

This article is using British English at the moment. Please leave faeces spelt so, not feces. --Mike C | talk 19:25, 22 October 2005 (UTC)

more possible references

(not actually linked in because I'm being lazy and don't feel like hunting down the actual citations, not just pointers to such.)

  • Scientific American Mind, May/June 2011, pg. 16 "Consciousness Redux", This protozoan can do nasty things -- even cause suicidal tendencies in mice. By Christof Koch. — Preceding unsigned comment added by KarlHegbloom (talk • contribs) 15:22, 16 June 2011 (UTC)

LSD?

The Straight Dope says T. Gondii might produce LSD. I want to hear more about that. —Keenan Pepper 16:21, 12 February 2006 (UTC)

Maybe someone with access to Journals could take a look at JHU mentioned in the article above. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Joemccraw (talk • contribs) 19:47, 11 April 2010 (UTC)

Hodgkin's disease and Toxoplasmosis

The main article indicates that those people with an auto-immune disease are at a higher risk when catching Toxoplasmosis. Hodgkin's disease is frequently characterized by fewer white cells in the blood. Are those people also any more susceptible to Toxoplasmosis than the general population?

I'm not a doctor, so take the following with a healthy dose of skepticism. The risk is for people with immunocomprimisation, not auto-immune disease per se (Although treatment for some auto-immune diseases might depress the immune system). There is thought to be a link between the two diseases, but I can't seem to find any conclusive references for H's Lymphoma in particular. It seems that infection with T. gondii with lymphomas can cause mis-diagnoses, and that chemotherapy for the lymphoma would cause severe problems in cases of T. gondii that were not kept under sufficient control. Hope that's a help. --Mike C | talk 21:27, 7 June 2006 (UTC)

Treatment

This paper gives good description of diagnosis and treatment of congenital toxoplasmosis. Worth linking. http://www.rrsss17.gouv.qc.ca/santepub/pdf/Nunavik_Toxoplasmose_1999A.pdf The paper is in French but the diagrams are also in English.


"The vast majority of patients with a normal immune system do not require any treatment." If the parasite is lowering the victim's intelligence, then this statement is totally incorrect. 1/3 of the world has this thing in them? Why is the article so unconcerned about treating a horrible epidemic?


My son has been diagnosed with ocular toxoplasmosis and has a large scar on his macula (from the dead parasite). My question is how do we know that he will not have a similar occurance again in the future? Is he safe from future attacks? We are having a hard time finding info about future possibilities. 220.131.99.84 02:59, 5 May 2007 (UTC)Concerned mom.


I've just been looking up the "Gold Laser Annihilation" treatment that is mentioned in this article. I've managed to get a number of hits to this, but they all seem to stem from an article in "popular science"; the information here seems to come directly from this as it uses the same language ("zaps them!"). Does anyone know whether this treatment is at all real? Has it been published anywhere more authoritative or with a fully-described methodology? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 92.233.201.139 (talk) 14:22, 5 April 2010 (UTC)

The section for treatment of the chronic toxoplasmosis is a bit unclear: Is there any evidence that any treatment lead to a lower volume of cysts in humans? I followed the links, there's no evidence for an effective treatment of the parasite in cyst form in humans. 84.172.176.110 (talk) 22:55, 6 September 2011 (UTC)

Behavioral Changes

In regard to the citation needed on the corresponding section "Behavioral changes" (see beginning), that information may be verified by Robert Sapolsky discussing it here: [1]. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Mgwhitfield (talk • contribs) 16:44, 9 December 2009 (UTC)

Behavioral effects on humans

The evidence for behavioral effects on humans : ), although intriguing, is relatively weak. There have been no randomized clinical trials studying the effects of toxoplasma on human behavior.

a quick glance at pubmed is telling me the spurious claim quoted above, from the wiki article, is complete rubbish... but i'd like someone to doublecheck and verify before i (or somebody) remove it. thanks. --Wedge 14:37, 1 December 2006 (UTC)

The second sentence is definitely true. A randomized clinical trial would involve deliberately infecting a sample of people with T. Gondii to see what happened to them! Even in the domain of evidence that could be ethically gathered, what we have now is fairly weak. Really solid evidence for behavior change would involve following a group of people from pre- to post- infection and seeing if their behavior changes in the predicted ways only after being infected. Probably the most efficient way to do it would be to take one of the large longitudinal health studies that already interviews and collects blood samples from the same people every few years, and start testing the blood we're already collecting for T. Gondii antibodies. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Inhumandecency (talk • contribs) 15:55, 18 July 2008 (UTC)
The claim is that it makes people more reckless. Since people tend to get less reckless as they get older, a longitudinal study probably won't confirm these claims. Puddytang (talk) 04:49, 13 February 2012 (UTC)

Responsible for Sea Otter population loss. http://www.viamagazine.com/top_stories/articles/seaotter_savior07.asp

I have occular toxoplasmosis and have had 3 episodes of the dormant cysts breaking open and causing damage to my retina. The first episode must have happened near adolescence and the first eye doctor to notice the scarring in my retina was unsure why I had it. Eventually an eye doctor could tell me what had caused the scarring some years later. The next time I had an episode was after the birth of my first child, I noticed the blind spot in my eye was suddenly bigger. I went to a retinal specialist, The medication to kill the parasite was not something safe to take while nursing/pregnant. The 3rd episode was a few years later and I was able to take the medication (it was a folic acid inhibitor) that time and have not had any further episodes in the last 9 years. The damage to vision from this parasite can be pretty serious, at this point my left eye has no central vision and could be considered "legally blind" but does have peripheral vision left. The damage from my first episode was very small, it left a blind spot that took up about 4 small squares on a graph paper when looking at it. BarbaraTimmons 04:36, 25 August 2007 (UTC)

Like Barbara above i too have had 3 episodes which have caused damage to my retina. The first when i was 19, then at 21 and again now at 36. The first time caused substantial damage to my retina as Drs where unable to identify what was causing my blurred vision and treatment was delayed. this led to me taking a year out of my university course, not only to fully recover but also to give my brain a chance to adjust to the change in visual messages. I had a problem with judging distances and reading would make me nauseus and dizzy. After a few months when my brain had adapted these symptoms went away. With the experience of the first episode i knew specifically to seek out opthamologists with specialism in retina problems for the subsequent episodes so treatment was immediate and little damage was done. I it is vital that if you suspect you have this problem that you identify a medical specialist who can recognize this problem - so you don't end up being passed from one to another medical professional and treatment is swift and appropriate. I am now on a cocktail of 9 medications and my Dr says he will discuss ongoing prevention medication once this episode is under control. I was very surprised at this latest episode as i had been told that the parasite would 'die off' and as i got older it would cease to reactivate. At the moment i am virtually blind in one eye and am hoping this reverts as treament kicks in. I can't emphaisize enough that teh speed and quality of treatment you recieve is key. Velhus 03:59, 5 October 2007 (UTC)

My name is Prathamesh Narode, i live in Mumbai, India. I have a black scar in my left retina due to toxoplasmosis. I have had 2 episodes, once when i was 12 yrs old, then when i was 17 yrs old. I took Roxid 50, and few more steroids to kill the bacterias. I dont knwo when it will strike again, all i have to do is stay healthy. People with same occurance pls write into me : prathameshnarode@in.com

I would like to share more experiences. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 121.241.230.132 (talk) 10:32, 21 July 2009 (UTC)

I believe Martina Navratilova retired from singles professional tennis in 1994. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 68.99.51.248 (talk) 13:21, 29 May 2011 (UTC)

Test For Toxoplasmosis

So how do doctors test for Toxo? Is there a standard test or do they just use a general fecal matter test?24.83.178.11 04:28, 6 March 2007 (UTC)KnowledgeSeeker

Generally it's a blood test with an antibody titer run against Toxoplasma. -- MarcoTolo 04:35, 6 March 2007 (UTC)
Does this test also work for the latent phase?24.83.178.11 06:51, 30 March 2007 (UTC)BeeCier
Not unless you test soon after (within a few weeks/months). There's also a challenge test where they innoculate you with dead toxoplasmosis, and if you react you've previously been infected. I don't know how long that works for after the initial infection though, probably a lot longer.WolfKeeper 01:05, 3 April 2007 (UTC)
Hi Wolfkeeper. If I go and ask to get tested and turns out I have it, can I request a atovaquone/clindamycin treatment for latent toxoplasmosis even though I'm not immunocompromised, which is what the article implies is when treatment is considered? I'm concerned about the potential behavioral effects. Any downside from such a treatment? And is there any sort of immunity developed to decrease the potential of subsequent infection? At least one of the effects, reaction time, mentioned in the article, is mentioned to lessen over time, so perhaps I may be shooting myself in the foot if I get treated just so I have a subsequent reinfection and renewal of said effects. ThVa (talk) 12:34, 31 December 2007 (UTC)
You could possibly get prescribed it, but the medicine costs maybe $2000 or more (I haven't priced it recently). It's a long course at high dose of a fairly expensive medicine.- (User) WolfKeeper (Talk) 13:07, 31 December 2007 (UTC)

I have a blood test(titer) every few years or less.reason being that I had my first case when I was 15 back in 1977. I took all the medications prescribed as in the links(sulfadiazine, etc). I had a reactivation when I was in my last month of pregnancy in 1987. Probably because I could not tolerate the length of time I had to take the drugs the first time. I became lukemic, anemic, had swollen gland and was very ill. I had a severe case and therefore I check frequently for another reactivaton. I was very lucky that I still have my eyesight. I have a lesionin my eye now , it is a hairline below my central vision. Checking with a blood titer is a good thing if you have had a case of toxo. I believe that I contracted the protozoa from rabbit hutches we had in the back yard. Rabits are known to carry it.It also could of been the raw hamburger meat we ate infrequently as a kid. Who knows!?

There are immunohistochemical stains for FFPE tissue against toxoplasma based on a polyclonal rabbit antibody to Toxoplasma gondii (see http://www.abcam.com/Toxoplasma-gondii-antibody-ab15170.html) — Preceding unsigned comment added by 72.38.193.194 (talk) 14:55, 29 February 2012 (UTC)

Famous/Notable people with toxoplasmosis

Is this section encyclopedic? It does have a source.--ZayZayEM 07:14, 29 May 2007 (UTC)

Yes, it does have a source, but the source (a lecture outline from a parasitology lab course) does not meet WP:RS standards, especially when considered in conjunction with WP:BLP. I'm trimming the list of those individuals covered under BLP pending better sources - if no reliable sources appear in a reasonable amount of time, the entire section should be deleted. -- MarcoTolo 03:11, 23 August 2007 (UTC)
I am pretty angry, you arbitrarily deleted reliably sourced information from the wikipedia without doing any checking. The source was a published source on the web, and was specifically about the parasite in question, and was from an academic environment. People like Navratilova and Leslie Ash are very widely known to have contracted this disease, and even the most trivial checks would have found this. I consider this vandalism. You even deleted information about two other people who aren't even alive!!!! Which bit of Biography of LIVING PEOPLE didn't you understand????WolfKeeper 04:19, 5 October 2007 (UTC)

.....take a breath fag. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 207.252.166.132 (talk) 07:44, 24 May 2008 (UTC)

oocysts require longer than a single day to become "infective"

Can someone please clarify this statement (emphasis is mine):

but the risk may be reduced further by having the litterbox emptied daily (oocysts require longer than a single day to become infective), and by having someone else empty the litterbox.

Shouldn't that say "oocysts require longer than a single day to become effective" or "oocysts require more than a single day to become effective"? I'm not sure what this statement means, or even what an oocyst is. Gh5046 04:41, 6 September 2007 (UTC)

Oocysts are sort of eggs shed in cat poo. The oocysts dont need to sit in cat poo for a day or two; they need to ripen up before they become infectious. If you were to eat the cat poo (yuck!) before that you wouldn't get infected, the stomach would break the oocysts open early and they would all die and you wouldn't get ill.WolfKeeper 05:01, 6 September 2007 (UTC)
Thank you! I've changed that line in the article to say "effective." This sentence could probably be structured more clearly, but I don't want to change it for fear of changing its accuracy. Thanks again, WolfKeeper! Gh5046 05:44, 6 September 2007 (UTC)
Infective is precisely correct. Effective isn't quite right. Effective implies connotations of positiveness (which is wrong here), whereas infective implies connotations of disease. Revert.WolfKeeper 06:31, 6 September 2007 (UTC)
Ah, I was misreading the word. I was reading it as "ineffective." Sorry about that. Gh5046 06:34, 6 September 2007 (UTC)

"Lower rule-consciousness and jealousy (in men)"

does this mean "Lower rule-consciousness and lower jealousy" or "Lower rule-consciousness and (increased) jealousy"? --86.137.156.17 (talk) 13:59, 1 January 2008 (UTC)

Revert question

this edit and this edit were clobbered by this edit by User:PhilMacD -- was that intentional? it seems like this reference actually is newer, and not just vandalism. i couldn't really tell if they were good edits or not. just curious. --Rob* (talk) 08:48, 18 May 2008 (UTC)

Sex ratio

The article states that Toxoplasma-positive women will have boys 60% of the time, and further down it states that 88% of French people are Toxoplasma-positive. Surely these two claims contradict each other. Should I write something in the article about how they cannot both be true? - unsigned

That's a good point - http://indexmundi.com/france/sex_ratio.html says that the sex ratio in France is actually in favour of women, across the whole population, and only slightly favours males at birth. 92.238.105.105 (talk) 18:01, 4 November 2008 (UTC)

Marsupials

i've been told toxoplasmosis is fatal to marsupials (kangaroos,koalas etc)i think if true it should be noted on the wiki page -rej —Preceding unsigned comment added by 120.17.246.41 (talk) 05:20, 13 September 2008 (UTC)

Text from Cat

The following paragraphs were in Cat, but have little do with cats themselves, so it didn't belong there. Perhaps y'all can do something with it here. howcheng {chat} 05:59, 26 June 2010 (UTC)

Some specialists believe that infection with toxoplasmosis may induce changes of personality in people who contract the bacteria. According to several Czech studies, there is a difference in the ways women and men get affected by this condition. As it has been shown, men are more likely to become more suspicious and jealous as well as ignorant of the rules of the society. The study also concluded that women on the other hand spent more money on clothes and were consistently rated as more attractive. [1] The Czech studies were also carried out on both wild and laboratory animals. According to these studies, scientists claim that there is a noticeable difference in the behavior of infected animals when compared to healthy animals. Nonetheless, the same scientists state that this effect of infections with toxoplasmosis represents an evolutionary adaptation to increase the probability of transmission from the intermediate host, usually mice, to the definitive host, some kind of cat predator. [2] Some compare the effect the infection has on mice to the effect of Prozac in humans, as the infection makes them less fearful of cats and end up in becoming easy targets. [3] Moreover, it appears that latent toxoplasmosis may influence the sex ratio in embryos. The studies carried out in this particular matter revealed that women who are infected with toxoplasmosis are more likely to give birth to boys rather than girls. The explanation standing behind this fact could be that the immunosuppression that is induced by the bacteria is closely connected with the death of the embryos. It is estimated that at least 30% of embryos are destroyed by the bacteria during pregnancy. The pathogen is a leading cause of neurological birth defects in children born to mothers who contract the disease during pregnancy and can cause fatal toxoplasmosis encephalitis in immunosuppressed patients. [4]


Other effects of dormant toxoplasmosis in humans may include some degree of psycho-motor impairment and a longer time of reaction. Two studies carried out in Turkey and Czech Republic show that infected individuals have 2.5 times higher risks to provoke a traffic accident. [5]

My, my, what rubish science (pseudo-science) is that?! Why is everyone so interested with taxoplasmosis, I wonder. Cat (mis)adoration? Women spending more, getting more attractive, irrational men... Such nonsense. I've done a quick research and didn't find any studies of the sort, while all your references point to this wikipedia editing page. This is, by far, the least credible article I've seen so far (as in "blatant misinformation"). ~ RaffDS — Preceding unsigned comment added by 186.213.133.44 (talk) 20:01, 15 December 2011 (UTC)
Further, protozoans aren't bacteria 62.202.12.176 (talk) 19:31, 24 February 2012 (UTC)

Troll attack

Acute toxoplasmosis [Second paragraph] Swollen lymph nodes are more commonly found in my asshole followed by axillae and then groin. Anyone with the necessary knowledge, can you edit this out? Thanks. (Meanwhile, I've changed the passage to "[...]are more commonly found [?] followed [...]".)

— Preceding unsigned comment added by 186.213.133.44 (talk) 18:38, 15 December 2011‎ (UTC)

Limits of studies and mass hysteria

What worries me about this article is that it really has very limited peer reviewed literature. At this point it seems to be mostly a blend of pseudoscience and a kind of pop. science. It seems to be little more then anti-feline hysteria. We are treading dangerously close to going back to medieval times. I am actually waiting for a study that somehow magically shows that it is much more common in black cats then in others. There is no real mention beyond raw meat of the other sources of the parasite (i.e. deer and dog).

Corrections suggested: 1). Some expansion beyond just cats being the primary source of the parasite. 2). Some expansion on the limitation of understanding of effects on humans. 3). This article needs to lead with a disclaimer about the limitations of what we know.


I agree completely that there needs to be more peer reviewed references on the risk factors of Toxoplasmosis; but at this time the peer reviewed evidence shows that cats are the primary source for human infection; or more specifically exposure to cat faeces. Shaedo (talk) 04:48, 3 July 2011 (UTC)

Statistical questions

If their are no before and after studies; might the increased prevalence of certain personality traits have to do with cat ownership? I.E Males who are distrustful are more likely to get a cat and be exposed to infectioon?? I just saw this [2] that claims that those who are infected have their personality change.--Lzygenius 18:10, 18 Jun 2005 (UTC)

Yes, there has been evidence pointing towards this for a while. It is what the "behavioral changes" at the bottom of symptoms is about. The risk-taking behaviour stimulated by the parasite seems to be the cause of the increase in traffic accidents. --Mike C | talk 22:11, 18 Jun 2005 (UTC)
if I understand the research correctly, the effects of it seem to decrease over time after infection. Atleast, I think that's what the accident research says, it wasn't particularly easy to understand the implications of the graph I saw.WolfKeeper
This article [3] says that personality changes become more pronounced over time in people when the infection date is known, and in older patients. Leopd (talk) 16:50, 8 April 2011 (UTC)
OTOH, the number of latent parasites presumably does go up over time, apparently; but the immune system does apparently mostly keep a lid on it.WolfKeeper

Question: so does the body eventually get rid of the disease or is it always there but suppressed? Also when the article says about a third of the population is infected does that mean that all of them can infect others? 82.45.253.122 (talk) 23:13, 25 March 2008 (UTC)

You can't give it to other people unless they cannibalise you; it's not contagious or infectious from human to human in all but the very weirdest scenarios. But no, it never goes away, and it's suppressed by your immune system (pretty much).- (User) WolfKeeper (Talk) 23:49, 25 March 2008 (UTC)
evidence suggests that it is sexually transmitted in rats. Its possible it could be an STD in humans as well, but no one has really looked into the possibility. As I understand it, the personality change in any one person would be too small to notice, it's only when you look at a large sample that an effect seems to show up Puddytang (talk) 04:36, 13 February 2012 (UTC)

I wonder if this is sometimes traced to dogs. I love dogs, but dogs love "kitty crackers". My dog races out the door to gobble up as many as he can on the way to the car. A nasty thing to do just before "kissing" everyone. — Mark (Mkmcconn) ** 22:04, 9 September 2005 (UTC)

Treatment

Besides the symptoms and cysts, is there a treatment to get rid of the parasite itself? — Preceding unsigned comment added by AlanH (talk • contribs) 01:05, 10 February 2006‎ (UTC)

After the initial infection is past, the cysts (bradyzoites) *are* the parasite. The cysts slowly grow, and then occasionally burst and about a thousand of the parasite come out and go walkabouts (i.e. they turn into tachyzoites). The immune system mostly jumps on and kills the tachyzoites, but a few may find a new nerve/muscle cell to take up residence in, and they then burrow in and turn into bradyzoites and begin growing again. Provided the immune system is in good shape, there's no major symptoms due to this. But if somebody has AIDs when they come out then there's no resistance and the tachyzoites party on down and the person can die.
Because the cyst form is very hardy, there's no known treatment that is guaranteed to kill all the cysts, but it seems to do a good enough job in most cases.
— Preceding unsigned comment added by Wolfkeeper (talk • contribs) 01:41, 10 February 2006‎ (UTC)

Culture-shaping

I find this page worth mentioning in the article: http://www.seedmagazine.com/news/2006/08/the_cultureshaping_parasite.php

— Preceding unsigned comment added by 83.19.70.178 (talk) 07:41, 25 August 2006‎ (UTC)

Junk science

Toxoplasmosis does not cause women to be more loving and attractive; it does not cause men to be more jealous and non-conformist; it does not cause schizophrenia; it does cause a horrible death from encephalitis in AIDS patients. Please show some respect to the dead, and the suffering, by not posting pseudo-scientific bullshit about this disease on this page. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 4.157.113.143 (talk) 02:27, 16 December 2007 (UTC)

Although a lot of the work is speculative, it is from reasonable epidemiological studies and scientific sources, so it can't be removed from the article because you consider it disrespectful. However, the text should make it clear that the encephalitis effects are severe and well-established, while the personality effects are subtle and still under debate. Inhumandecency (talk) —Preceding comment was added at 15:58, 18 July 2008 (UTC)
So far every website describing its psychological symptoms gives it slightly different effects. But the worst and dumbest way to discredit pseudoscience is by exaggerating the number of people who already know its pseudoscience. Because that way, something correct that ends up looking like pseudoscience will never get the chance to be relooked. We need to mention the theories as if they were true, even if most of us personally disagree, because theories need to be given chances to prove themselves right. 50.131.180.143 (talk) 20:30, 12 August 2012 (UTC)

Trivia

Moved unreffed trivia here

===Literature and film===

  • The effects of toxoplasmosis on human behavior is central to the plot of Kitty Kitty, a film directed by Michael Medaglia in 2011.
  • Toxoplasmosis is referred to at the end of the British TV series Doc Martin, Series 4, Episode 6: "MidWife Crisis", first broadcast on 25 October 2009. This was in relation to eating roadkill, including "Badger Burgers".
  • Toxoplasmosis is incorrectly referred to as a fungus in the 17th episode of the first season of House M.D. entitled "Role Model."
  • Toxoplasmosis is often referenced in Peeps, a 2005 novel by Scott Westerfeld.
  • In the 1996 film Trainspotting, the character Tommy, a heroin addict with AIDS, acquires toxoplasmosis and dies.
  • Toxoplasmosis is referenced in And The Band Played On, a 1993 American television film docudrama directed by Roger Spottiswoode. The teleplay by Arnold Schulman is based on the best-selling 1987 non-fiction book And the Band Played On: Politics, People, and the AIDS Epidemic by Randy Shilts.
  • Toxoplasmosis was the subject of a controversial story line in the early years of the American television soap opera "All My Children" (1973–1974) in which a then-teenage Erica Kane (Susan Lucci) developed a nearly fatal case of toxoplasmosis after an abortion. It was later explained to have been caused by the changing of a cat litter box.
  • Toxoplasmosis was referenced in an episode of "Law and Order: SVU" in which an AIDS-denier who is infected with HIV dies of complications stemming from toxoplasmosis.

Doc James (talk · contribs · email) 08:04, 8 June 2012 (UTC)

Dead reference

In the section #Biological modifications of the host, subsection #Behavioral changes, this reference: {{cite journal |author=Pekka Santtila, Patrick Jern, Lars Westberg, Hasse Walum, Christin T. Pedersen, Elias Eriksson, Nils Kenneth Sandnabba |title=The Dopamine Transporter Gene (DAT1) Polymorphism is Associated with Premature Ejaculation |journal=The Journal of Sexual Medicine |volume=7 |issue=4pt1 |pages=1538–1546 |year=2010 |doi=10.1111/j.1743-6109.2009.01696.x}}; has become redircted to http://www.metapress.com/home/main.mpx Metapress Hosting Services.

Uncompromised references are these: The Economist and COSMOS which I plan to substitute in the article. - Fartherred (talk) 00:34, 16 January 2013 (UTC)

acute, new, and first

"If infection with T. gondii occurs for the first time during pregnancy, during an activity such as changing cat litter of a cat infected with T. gondii..." In the quote above should this me first infection or new infection? If a person is infected do they have bradycysts for life? Can you get another acute infection if you already have bradycysts? When a person becomes immune compromised do the bradycysts they already have become active or do they get new infections? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.94.95.226 (talk) 18:00, 11 February 2013 (UTC)

brain cancer

I removed claim linking Toxoplasmosis with brain cancer. Original research paper (Thomas et al 2011) found that countries with higher incidences of brain cancer have higher incidences of positive toxoplasma antibody titers. Evidence thus far has not tested populations of individuals with brain cancer (as has been done looking at associations between toxo and schizophrenia, for instance), but has only examined overlap bewteen geographic locations of brain cancer and geographic locations of higher T. gondii seroprevalences. I feel that this association should be left out of the article until more concrete data is published. Vertdegrece (talk) 07:15, 7 March 2013 (UTC)

autism spectrum disorder?

I came across this research paper:

http://www.eric.ed.gov/ERICWebPortal/search/detailmini.jsp?_nfpb=true&_&ERICExtSearch_SearchValue_0=EJ869973&ERICExtSearch_SearchType_0=no&accno=EJ869973

It suggests: "Worldwide, approximately 2 billion people are chronically infected with "Toxoplasma gondii" with largely yet unknown consequences. Patients with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) similarly as mice with chronic toxoplasmosis have persistent neuroinflammation, hypercytokinemia with hypermetabolism associated with enhanced lipid peroxidation, and extreme changes in the weight resulting in obesity or wasting. (.....) Thus, patients with ASD should be tested for "T. gondii" infection. "

Maybe its worth to mention this? --Psy0rz (talk) 11:56, 10 April 2013 (UTC)

response

In an encyclopedic context (i.e wikipedia), it generally isn't a good idea to discuss loose disease associations where evidence for causal relationships does not yet exist. Additionally, it is a much better practice to only include information that exists in meta-analyses or academic review articles, such that the information contained in the wikipedia article is not primary research, but is instead information that has been reviewed and responded to to a degree where it can be considered encyclopedic knowledge.

Vertdegrece (talk) 15:24, 15 April 2013 (UTC)

Unreffed trivia

Literature and film

  • The effects of toxoplasmosis on human behavior is central to the plot of Kitty Kitty, a film directed by Michael Medaglia in 2011.
  • Toxoplasmosis is referred to at the end of the British TV series Doc Martin, Series 4, Episode 6: "MidWife Crisis", first broadcast on 25 October 2009. This was in relation to eating roadkill, including "badger burgers".
  • Toxoplasmosis is incorrectly referred to as a fungus in the 17th episode of the first season of House M.D. entitled "Role Model".
  • Toxoplasmosis is often referenced in Peeps, a 2005 novel by Scott Westerfeld.
  • In the 1996 film Trainspotting, the character Tommy, a heroin addict with AIDS, acquires toxoplasmosis and dies.
  • Toxoplasmosis is referenced in And The Band Played On, a 1993 American television film docudrama directed by Roger Spottiswoode. The teleplay by Arnold Schulman is based on the best-selling 1987 nonfiction book And the Band Played On: Politics, People, and the AIDS Epidemic by Randy Shilts.
  • Toxoplasmosis was the subject of a controversial story line in the early years of the American television soap opera "All My Children" (1973–1974) in which a then-teenage Erica Kane (Susan Lucci) developed a nearly fatal case of toxoplasmosis after an abortion. It was later explained to have been caused by the changing of a cat litter box.
  • Toxoplasmosis was referenced in an episode of Law and Order: SVU in which an AIDS-denier who is infected with HIV dies of complications stemming from toxoplasmosis.
  • Toxoplasmosis is described in the short story "Phoenix" by Chuck Palahniuk.
  • Toxoplasmosis, its feline host, and its effects are described in John Hodgman's book, That Is All, albeit in a fanciful, humorous manner.



Moved it here Doc James (talk · contribs · email) (if I write on your page reply on mine) 15:51, 23 April 2013 (UTC)

Toxoplasma Gondii Bradyzoites Life Span

Do Toxoplasma bradyzoites have a lifespan? I know that for certain parasitic worms, if by misfortune settle in the brain, form cysts and lay dormant. There are no symptoms until the cysts start dying at the end of their lifespan of about eight years. SHouldn't it be the same for the Toxoplasma bradyzoites cysts?173.180.7.3 (talk) 09:34, 25 July 2013 (UTC)BeeCier

Toxoplasmosis Immunity?

Considering somebody gets infected with TG, develops antibodies then follows the proper antibiotic course to get healed. Is immunity established, and for how long? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 109.242.194.253 (talk) 20:00, 18 August 2013 (UTC)

A new way of treatment

http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2012/08/31/1208069109.full.pdf This is promising, it seems to be the first agent that works against the cysts. Kinaro7 (talk) 00:18, 7 September 2013 (UTC)

Proposed merge

Am proposing a merge between Crazy cat lady syndrome and this article, because:

  • The content in Crazy cat lady syndrome (namely an association between mental illness and toxoplasmosis) is most appropriately documented here
  • Reference to the 'crazy cat lady syndrome' should be moved to the society & culture section of this article.
  • Having these two articles separate has the risk of two separate articles about the same topic
  • By virtue of the name, the latter article (Crazy cat lady syndrome) will not receive the attention of readers' who are interested in disease associations linked with toxoplasmosis.

Kind regards, LT90001 (talk) 08:15, 5 October 2013 (UTC)

Of course none of the scientific papers referenced in that article describe "crazy cat lady syndrome". The content from that article should be merged here under the heading "Psychiatric symptoms". It should be mentioned that the lay press has labelled such symptoms as "crazy cat lady syndrome". Axl ¤ [Talk] 23:27, 8 October 2013 (UTC)

I have completed this merge and transposed the majority of preexisting content into this article. LT90001 (talk) 23:21, 11 October 2013 (UTC)

T. gondii Survival Mechanisms

Toxoplasma and protozoans generally are not plasmids as claimed erroneously in this section. Plasmids are small genetic elements whilst protozoans are unicellular eukaryotes. This is very basic biology. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 124.170.0.86 (talk) 12:38, 29 July 2014 (UTC)

Overall feedback on this article

I do not believe this was written by a professional. The writing itself is poorly organized, but more importantly there are crucial aspects that are not addressed, or addressed incorrectly. What is troubling about that is for example the conseuences of Toxoplasmosis contracted congenitally. The article glosses over this as if it is rarely a problem which is not true; a medical professional would emphasize what is relevant about this infection, and first on the list in terms of morbidity and mortality is the conseuences of congenital infection (in a previously negative pregnant woman). The conseuences in this situation are well known and common. The majority of the article focuses on science that is far less documented and accepted, and arguably less conseuential in terms of morbidity and mortality.... Throughout the article simple obvious things are not clarified eg.when the author is speaking of colonization of an individual versus active infection. This is an important distinction to make. The article is seemingly written for someone with significant prior knowledge of the subject. Because this is a Wikipedia article and is presumably for laypeople, the article should be written so that it can be followed by an average person and it is not. The overall article shares dubious studies but worse than that it does not effectively address anything critical concerning the relatively new area of "crazy cat lady" research. The overall article is biased and then goes on to tack on a disclaimer of sorts at the end. ... This article is focused on Toxoplasmosis and not on T. gondii specifically. So I wonder if the implication should be that, as this article focuses on a specific well recognized manifestation of infection, with a proper medical name attached to it, if perhaps the speculation about other possible complications from the particular organism, should be moved to the T.gonddi page. ...The whole article needs to be rewritten and is not salvageable.A medical professional might be ideal. ? Most Wikipedia entries are very useful and informative. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 43&*H()BVsd5ercdv8yu (talk • contribs) 08:05, 17 September 2014 (UTC)

Epigenetics, inclusion of sources that do not mention toxoplasmosis

I don't understand why my removal of this passage was reverted: [4]. The three sources cited for this claim--"Similar epigenetically-induced behavioral changes have also been observed in mouse models of addiction, where changes in the expression of histone-modifying enzymes via gene knockout or enzyme inhibition produced neuron-specific alterations in drug-related behaviors"--were used to strengthen the argument that epigenetic remodeling of rat amygdala is the mechanism by which T. gondii alters behavior. However, none of the sources makes this argument or even mentions toxoplasmosis/T. gondii. The next sentence--"Widespread histone-lysine acetylation in cortical astrocytes appears to be another epigenetic mechanism employed by T. gondii"--is followed by two citations. Neither reference claims that histone acetylation is tied to rat behavior. Unless I'm missing something, these two sentences should be deleted. CatPath (talk) 03:43, 3 July 2015 (UTC)

The only thing that sentence suggests, the way I read it, is that behavioral changes which result from changes in the (neuro)epigenome, specifically though histone-lysine acetylation, are not unique to ratsmice. Seppi333 (Insert 2¢) 04:42, 3 July 2015 (UTC)
I see that now. Thanks, I was reading too much into the passage. CatPath (talk) 22:16, 3 July 2015 (UTC)

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Wording in the lead

How about "Latent toxoplasmosis|infected by toxoplasmosis but have no symptoms"? Which is basically the plan language meaning from what I understand. Doc James (talk · contribs · email) 00:24, 12 January 2016 (UTC)

Looks good to me. Seppi333 (Insert 2¢) 00:57, 12 January 2016 (UTC)

Schizophrenia

Have trimmed this [5] as the content was dealt with already latter in the article with better references. Doc James (talk · contribs · email) 12:24, 14 February 2016 (UTC)

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Better separation between biological and medical aspects?

There is some discussion of redisposing the material going into this article, and into Toxoplasma gondii, slightly more consistently. If you have opinions about this, please write them at Talk:Toxoplasma_gondii#Incorrect interpretation of sources?, to keep the discussion collected! JoergenB (talk) 19:10, 27 December 2016 (UTC)

Mentioning the Manipulation Hypothesis

As the section subject says. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 95.239.214.109 (talk) 20:18, 17 March 2017 (UTC)

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Insufficient information about the suicide correlation

This article seems to underplay the suicide correlation.

Writing for Scientific American, Christie Wilcox says "Toxoplasma gondii is arguably the most interesting parasite on the planet," and I would tend to agree. She goes on to describe a 2012 study of 45,000 Danish women:

The results were clear. Women with Toxoplasma infections were 54% more likely to attempt suicide - and twice as likely to succeed. In particular, these women were more likely to attempt violent suicides (using a knife or gun, for example, instead of overdosing on pills). But even more disturbing: suicide attempt risk was positively correlated with the level of infection. Those with the highest levels of antibodies were 91% more likely to attempt suicide than uninfected women. The connection between parasite and suicide held even for women who had no history of mental illness: among them, infected women were 56% more likely to commit self-directed violence.

She also relates this comment from the study's senior author:

"we have not excluded reverse causality as there might be risk factors for suicidal behavior that also make people more susceptible to infection with T. gondii"

and I think this should also be included in the article, in order to preserve NPOV.

Wikipedia's lack of inclusion of this information may be doing a significant disservice to public health. 75.163.143.203 (talk) 12:55, 12 July 2017 (UTC)

Cat Lady Sources

All of the cat lady sources are news links. None of them actually reference someone doing research on the subject. I think this should be removed or stated that there have been no studies. Or link a study. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2601:640:0:C0B4:CD0:A5A7:12BF:6E41 (talk) 04:36, 23 August 2017 (UTC)

Primary sources and popular press

This

"Toxoplasmosis may be decreasing fear of failure and increasing the propensity for risky behavior in infected. http://rspb.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/285/1883/20180822

https://phys.org/news/2018-07-toxoplasma-gondii-parasite-linked-risky.html

https://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-news/parasite-cat-poop-could-be-reducing-our-fear-failure-study-n894221"

Is based on popular press and primary sources. It is a tentative association based on a single study. This is also not a finding in "acute" infections. Doc James (talk · contribs · email) 11:09, 26 July 2018 (UTC)

By the way the topic of psychological effects in those with chronic infections is already discussed Toxoplasmosis#Research Doc James (talk · contribs · email) 11:12, 26 July 2018 (UTC)
concur--Ozzie10aaaa (talk) 11:50, 26 July 2018 (UTC)

It should mention that it decreases fear of cats in mice and and also decreases fear of failure and perhaps fear in general in humans. Oranjelo100 (talk) 11:57, 26 July 2018 (UTC)

Also this is a secondary source[6] and not "popular press" Oranjelo100 (talk) 12:11, 26 July 2018 (UTC)

References

  1. ^ "Humans Get Personality Altering Infections From Cats". Retrieved 2010/06/25. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help)
  2. ^ "Cat parasite found to affect human behaviour, sex ratio". Retrieved 2010/06/25. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help)
  3. ^ "Humans Get Personality Altering Infections From Cats". Retrieved 2010/06/25. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help)
  4. ^ "Human-Cat Psychology: Do Cats Improve Our Mood and Become Attached to Us?". Retrieved 2010/06/25. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help)
  5. ^ "Cat parasite found to affect human behaviour, sex ratio". Retrieved 2010/06/25. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help)
  6. ^ https://phys.org/news/2018-07-toxoplasma-gondii-parasite-linked-risky.html
Yirka, Bob (25 July 2018). "Toxoplasma gondii parasite linked to risky business behavior". Phys.org. is simply a report on a single study. It makes no pretence of review, analysis or comparison, so is no more reliable a medical source than the primary study it reports on. It's certainly just "press" coverage, even if it's not "popular", and Bob Yirka is described as a "science journalist" on multiple sites. To quote the opening of our article on the publisher, Phys.org: "Phys.org is a science, research and technology news aggregator where much of the content is republished directly from press releases and news agencies-in a practice known as churnalism." It has no business being cited in any encyclopedia, least of all Wikipedia, which has a deserved reputation for using only high-quality sources for biomedical articles. --RexxS (talk) 13:53, 26 July 2018 (UTC)
phys.org is mostly a churnalism website. It fails MEDRS by miles. We generally don't cite primary sources, or press releases about them, or churnalism regurgitating press releases, or even popular media doing some reporting on them.
Remember that scientist who published work showing that if you shake cells (really!) you could turn them into stem cells? There was huge media hype around that. And yep, people rushed to add content based on the hyped primary source to WP. (Note the edit date, and the date the paper came out) only to delete it later when the paper was retracted. (We actually have a whole article on that mess Stimulus-triggered acquisition of pluripotency) We should not be jerking the public around like that. There is no reason to do that - we have no deadline here. Jytdog (talk) 14:12, 26 July 2018 (UTC)
It's generally a good idea to mention media hype in an affected article. Educating people that the thing they thought was so cool has nothing solid behind it is a proper use of Wikipedia. It also has a valuable effect on discouraging less experienced editors from repeating the hype here. A good media-comments-on-the-media news article should be sufficient for making that kind of statement. WhatamIdoing (talk) 19:28, 26 July 2018 (UTC)
Problem is finding such sources. Most media just likes to hype. We have in a discussion in the research section the limitations of the research already. Doc James (talk · contribs · email) 08:13, 27 July 2018 (UTC)
Best PR-debunking place for this will be https://www.healthnewsreview.org/?s=toxoplasmosis .... nothing yet. Jytdog (talk) 20:50, 27 July 2018 (UTC)

Macaulay Culkin

So this is "not a sufficient source" that Culkin had toxoplasmosis? Is this because he is not a medical professional? Because he is deluded? Because he is a compulsive liar? Because it was a joke? Some other reason? Thanks. Martinevans123 (talk) 23:33, 11 January 2019 (UTC)

Cause section: issues

What felines, in addition to Felix catus and Felix sylvestris, are active in the toxo life cycle? Acwilson9 (talk) 15:54, 9 September 2019 (UTC)

History section: issues

How old is the toxo g. organism? When and how did toxo evolve to exist between felines and rodents? (e.g., 200 years ago? 20,000 years ago? 2 million years ago?) Acwilson9 (talk) 16:13, 9 September 2019 (UTC)

General audience

Our goal is to write for a general audience. Thus "cut family" is better than "felid" Doc James (talk · contribs · email) 18:03, 15 April 2020 (UTC)

Redundant Sources

The same CDC article seems to be cited seven different times throughout the beginning of the article. I'm not very experienced here, but that really seems wrong. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Fischbol (talk • contribs) 15:41, 1 May 2020 (UTC)

WP:VET

This is one of the most popular pages in Wikipedia:WikiProject Veterinary medicine's scope. Very few editors watch WT:VET's pages, which means that questions may not be answered in a timely manner. If you are an active editor and interested in animals or veterinary medicine, please put WT:VET on your watchlist. Thank you, WhatamIdoing (talk) 19:59, 11 January 2021 (UTC)

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