2025-06-15

Toxoplasma gondii is an obligatory intracellular zoonotic protozoon, with a worldwide distribution infecting humans and almost all warm blooded animals. This review highlights the seroprevalence of toxoplasmosis in Iraq, and focus on the effects of variable risk factors, clinical features, and preventive strategies. Toxoplasmosis is recognized as a considerable public health issue in Iraq, numerous studies reported variable seroprevalences among populations. The variability in seropositivity is influenced by geographical location, age, hygienic and socio economic conditions. Higher seroprevalence is particularly reported among rural communities, pregnant women, and individuals with frequent exposure to animals or contaminated soil. The main routes for acquiring toxoplasmosis are eating or drinking contaminated food or water, being in close contact with contaminated soil, eating undercooked infected meat, and congenitally. Clinically, toxoplasmosis can be either asymptomatic, or exhibits mild flu-like symptoms to severe complications or even death in immunocompromised people and congenital infections in infants. Screening programs for pregnant women and serological testing for immunocompromised individuals can aid in early diagnosis and timely intervention. In conclusion toxoplasmosis seroprevalence is influenced by variable socio-demographic and environmental factors that affect its distribution and transmission. Further research is required to determine the actual seroprevalence and the associated factors in order to improve the control measures, and prevent the occurrence of new cases. Therefore, the introduction of health education programs and sanitary measure among the community are necessary to minimize the burden of toxoplasmosis and its related health consequences.

2025-06-14

Pseudomonas aeruginosa is rod-shaped, an aerobic, gram-negative, and opportunistic bacterium that doesn't make spores. It can cause various infections in immunocompetent and immunocompromised individuals, including surgical sites, urinary tract, pneumonia, burns, soft tissues, and otitis externa. Furthermore, it possesses variable virulence factors enabling it to resist treatment with the most available antibiotics. The purpose of this chapter was to show how common Pseudomonas aeruginosa isolates are among patients and healthcare professionals, as well as how they resist different types of antibiotics. This chapter demonstrates significant health problems related to Pseudomonas aeruginosa and derives more attention to this bacterium. Since only limited antibiotics are effective against it, therefore, all isolates must be investigated by antimicrobial susceptibility testing to identify the effective ones. From the used antibiotics, only Colistin showed a bactericidal effect by inducing a mechanism involving hydroxyl radicals that cause cell death. The application of this test limits antibiotic use and prevents the patients from developing resistance, in addition, it aids in the managements of treatment strategies.

2022-06-27

Cystic echinococcosis (CE) is a helminthic zoonotic disease that affects various body organs, primarily the liver and then the lungs. This disease is caused by the tapeworm of genus Echinococcus (family Taeniidae) which is endemic in most regions of the world (Armua-Fernandez et al. 2014, Romig et al. 2015; Karamian et al. 2017). As the intermediate hosts ingest the eggs, they develop into a fluid-filled cysts (Cardona and Carmena 2013; Rojas et al. 2014). The parasite needs two hosts to complete its life cycle. These hosts are the definitive host which are carnivores of the family Canidae and the second host is the intermediate host that includes many ruminants such as sheep, goats, cattle, camel etc. (Romig and Deplazes 2017). The adult worm lives in the small intestine of canids, mostly dogs and wolves (Karamian et al. 2017, Chaudhari et al. 2017; Mulinge et al. 2018). The adults produce eggs that pass with the feces of dogs and contaminate water, vegetables, fruits, etc. (Paniker and Ghosh 2013; OteroAbad and Torgerson 2013). When ingested by the intermediate hosts, eggs hatch releasing the hexacanth embryo. These are then carried by the blood to various body organs where they develop into cysts characterized by long-term growth in the intermediate hosts (Deplazes et al. 2017).

2022-06-27

Fascioliasis is considered as a neglected zoonotic disease of ruminants. This disease is caused by two species of Fasciola (F.) namely Fasciola hepatica and F. gigantica. They are distributed in more than 70 countries except Antarctica, in areas where sheep and cattle are reared (WHO 2016; CDC 2019). This disease was first recorded as early as 2000 BC. Fasciola spp. cause serious pathological effects to livestock (Abbas et al. 2019). The number of infected sheep exceeds 250 million and about 300 million cattle are infected globally with fascioliasis. The disease cause losses exceeding 3.2 billion $ yearly, due to decrease in milk and meat production and an increase in mortality rate in addition to liver condemnation and expenditure of anthelminthic (Hillyer and Apt 1997; Jaja et al. 2017).

2022-06-27

Fascioliasis is considered as a neglected zoonotic disease of ruminants. This disease is caused by two species of Fasciola (F.) namely Fasciola hepatica and F. gigantica. They are distributed in more than 70 countries except Antarctica, in areas where sheep and cattle are reared (WHO 2016; CDC 2019). This disease was first recorded as early as 2000 BC. Fasciola spp. cause serious pathological effects to livestock (Abbas et al. 2019). The number of infected sheep exceeds 250 million and about 300 million cattle are infected globally with fascioliasis. The disease cause losses exceeding 3.2 billion $ yearly, due to decrease in milk and meat production and an increase in mortality rate in addition to liver condemnation and expenditure of anthelminthic (Hillyer and Apt 1997; Jaja et al. 2017).