Toxoplasmosis During Pregnancy: What Happens

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What Happens

After having toxoplasmosis once, you cannot get it again. This is because your immune system has learned how to fight it. When you are immune to toxoplasmosis, you don't have to worry about getting it and passing it on to a fetus (unborn baby).

If you have an impaired immune system (such as from HIV infection or chemotherapy), you may have problems with repeat toxoplasmosis infections.

Infection during or just before pregnancy

A fetus cannot protect itself from toxoplasmosis. The toxoplasma parasite can infect your fetus up to 2 months after you have been infected.

• If your fetus is infected during the first half of pregnancy, toxoplasmosis is most likely to cause serious brain or eye damage.
• If your fetus is infected later in pregnancy, toxoplasmosis is less likely to cause serious problems.

Recent research suggests that antibiotic treatment of the mother during pregnancy may not cure an infected fetus. But it greatly reduces the risk and severity of fetal brain and eye damage.²

Infected infants who are not treated with antibiotics after birth can develop severe infection during the first 20 years of life. This can lead to mental retardation, eye damage, and sometimes blindness.

Last updated:	June 27, 2007
Author:	Maria G. Essig, MS, ELS
Reviewed By:	Joy Melnikow, MD, MPH - Family Medicine, Gregory A L Davies, MD, FRCSC, FACOG - Maternal-Fetal Medicine
Editors:	Susan Van Houten, RN, BSN, MBA, Pat Truman, MATC