Seroprevalence and Risk Factors of Human Brucellosis and Toxoplasmosis in Ghazni Province of Afghanistan

Abstract

Brucellosis and toxoplasmosis are considered neglected zoonotic diseases with a worldwide distribution, which are endemic in Afghanistan. A cross-sectional study was carried out from May 24, 2021, to Feb 20, 2022 to determine the seroprevalence and risk factors associated with human brucellosis and toxoplasmosis in suspected patients admitted to the public and private laboratories of Ghazni province of Afghanistan. To detect Brucella IgM. a semi-quantitative agglutination test was used, while for the detection of Toxoplasma IgM and IgG, a chromatographic immunoassay was applied. Seroprevalence of brucellosis and toxoplasmosis were 32.1% (76/237) and 19.6% (18/92) in tested patients, respectively. Whereas, only in five cases dual infections were found. The majority of brucellosis positive cases were among the age group >45 years old (57.1%; p<0.05), in district residents (43.5%; p>0.05), and among those with abortion (30.6%; p<0.05) and history of positive brucellosis cases (50.0%; p<0.05) in their family members. High seropositive cases of toxoplasmosis were observed in males (50.0%; p>0.05), 21-45 years old people (20.8%; p>0.05), those who owned dogs and cats (p>0.05), among those with the history of abortion cases in their animals (41.7%; p<0.05), and positive toxoplasmosis cases in their family members (66.7.0%; p≤0.05). The odds of being seropositive for brucellosis was higher in those that had history of abortion (OR: 4.3; 95%CI: 1.3-4.2) and brucellosis cases (OR: 7.1; 95%CI: 1.7-28.9) among their family members. Furthermore, the odds of being seropositive for toxoplasmosis was 13.2 times more (95%CI: 2.1, 82.2; p<0.05) in those which had history of abortion cases in their animals. The high seroprevalence could be attributed to the study population being drawn from suspected cases rather than the general population. To assess the cross-connection of infections in human and animal populations, it would be more beneficial to study a large number of human and animal samples concurrently.