Toxoplasmosis
It is said a lot about this disease; especially about the possibility of producing miscarriage in women because of “cats’ transmission” or because of “having cats”, but few times the way this infection is transmitted is clarified.
The wrong belief comes from a true fact: the germ (Toxoplasma Gondi) normally inhabits the cat´s intestines, but actually when it comes out through stool it refrains from transmission until 2 to 5 days have passed and they have the possibility to infect. That is to say that although we took stool with our hands without gloves (even with wounds on our skin) there would NOT be possibility of transmission.
Besides, in most cases it has been proved that transmission is produced after eating badly-cooked meat or badly-washed vegetables. Because of all this it can be explained why the 40% of pregnant women that have suffered miscarriage due to toxoplasmosis had never been in touch with cats and why most veterinarians who are every day in touch with cats show negative serology (absence of antibodies against Toxoplasma, as if they had never been in touch with that germ).
Therefore, the preventive measures to be taken into account regarding this disease are:
• Wash fresh vegetables thoroughly.
• Cook meat completely.
• Gather cats’ stool with gloves (particularly if it is more than 2 days old)
• Ask the doctor a prescription for a blood sample to measure antibodies against Toxoplasmosis before looking for or at the very beginning of pregnancy.