Toxoplasmosis among Saudi Female Students in Al-Ahssa, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia: Awareness and Risk Factors

Background: Toxoplasmosis is a worldwide disease that severely affects the fetuses and immunocompromised patients and results in many critical and life threatening conditions. The present study aimed to evaluate the awareness of toxoplasmosis and its preventive behaviors among female students in King Faisal University in Al-Ahssa. Subjects and methods: A cross sectional study was conducted in April 2014 among female students in KFU. The data were collected by a questionnaire from 88 participants. Results: Results showed that 65.4% were not aware of toxoplasmosis, and only 28.2% were aware of its complications or risk factors. This study showed that some people are at risk to get toxoplasmosis as they do not wash their hands with water and soap before eating (48.8%), do not wash the fruits and vegetables with water and soap (78.2%), drink tank water (51.3%) and cat owners don’t follow the proper measures for their cats. However, some people practice some of the preventive behaviors as they do not raise the cats (93.6%) and do not consume unpasteurized or unboiled milk (100%) or undercooked meat (92.3%). Conclusion: The current study proved the low awareness of toxoplasmosis which emphasized the need to educate the people in Al-Ahssa about the preventive methods, especially the pregnant women to prevent the severe complications of congenital infections.