BMJ 1995;311:691-692 (9 September)

Letters

Incidence of toxoplasma retinochoroiditis

EDITOR,--R E Gilbert and colleagues offered a new insight into the incidence of toxoplasma retinochoroiditis, but raised some doubts.1 The fascination is that the results are different from previous reports,2 which has implications for the management of toxoplasma infection in pregnancy.

The study methods should be carefully examined. Ophthalmologists were required to notify cases of toxoplasma retinochoroiditis to the researchers. Ophthalmologists are busy people and the help of none was acknowledged, so the study's results depended on the altruism of the participants. Three of the nine units reported no cases, which is a bit surprising, but the distribution of patients does seem to reflect a geographical sphere of influence of the researchers. There can be great inaccuracies with voluntary reporting. In Scotland toxoplasmosis is a notifiable disease through a system in which the clinician notifies the disease and is paid for so doing. Yet during 1992-4 only 19 of the . . . [Full text of this article]


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Relevant Article

Incidence of acute symptomatic toxoplasma retinochoroiditis in south London according to country of birth
R E Gilbert, M R Stanford, H Jackson, R E Holliman, and M D Sanders
BMJ 1995 310: 1037-1040. [Abstract] [Full Text]

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