Clinical Microbiology: Open Access

Toxocara infection in multiple sclerosis patients in Shahrekord district (2015-2016)

8^th CLINICAL MICROBIOLOGY CONFERENCE

October 26-28, 2017 | Paris, France

Bahman Khalilidehkordi, Ali Nickhah, Fouruzan Ganji and Nahid Jivad

Shahrekord University, Iran

Posters & Accepted Abstracts: Clin Microbiol

Abstract:

Background & Aim: Toxocariasis is an infection caused by ingestion of larvae of the dog roundworm Toxocara canis or the cat roundworm Toxocara cati. The disease is one the zoonotic parasitic disease with worldwide distribution. Multiple sclerosis (MS) is an auto-immune disease with unknown etiology. Whereas, Shahrekord is located on husbandry region and the relationship between infectious diseases such as toxocariasis proposed, this study was done to detect a possible relationship between the disease and Toxocara infection. Methods: This case- control study was done from September 2015 to May 2016. A total of 70 serum samples of patients with MS which were diagnosed by Macdonald criteria as cases and 70 serums from apparently healthy blood donor as controls were obtained. Samples were examined to detect Toxocara IgG antibodies by ElISA method. The data were analyzed using Chisquare and Fisher exact test by SPSS version 16 Software. Results: Out of 70 samples for each case and control group, eight cases (11.5%) and 1 control (1%) were positive for toxocariasis and had IgG antibodies against Toxocara infection and shows a significant relationship between MS and Toxocariasis (p<0.05). However, there was no relationship between Toxocariasis and age, sex, gob, education and place of living. Conclusion: This study showed that there was a significant association between Toxocara seropositivy and multiple sclerosis, however, due to small sample size there is a need of a comprehensive and multi- center study to confirm our results. This finding suggests that Toxocara infection may increase the risk of Multiple Sclerosis.