To avoid catching toxoplasmosis during pregnancy, it is important to choose to drink mineral water, eat well-done meat and eat well-washed or cooked vegetables and fruits, in addition to avoiding eating salad outside the home and washing your hands several times a day.
Generally, the probability of toxoplasmosis infection increases as pregnancy progresses, but contamination is more dangerous in the 1st trimester of pregnancy, as it can affect the development of the fetus, causing miscarriage or serious malformations.
To avoid infection, recommended protective measures include:
1. Avoid eating raw meat
As one of the forms of transmission is the consumption of raw, undercooked meat or sausages, it is important that women give preference to well-done meat to reduce the risk of contamination. In addition to avoiding the consumption of raw meat to reduce the risk of toxoplasmosis, it is important that pregnant women also wash fruits and vegetables well before consuming, as this also prevents other infections. See how to wash fruits and vegetables well.
2. Wash your hands well
To prevent toxoplasmosis, it is essential to wash your hands before and after preparing food, especially meat, whenever you touch garden soil, as it may contain parasite cysts, and after having contact with animals that may be infected by the parasite or with their excrement.
A good strategy at these times is to put on gloves and then throw them in the trash, as this avoids direct contact with the toxoplasmosis protozoan. But even so, it’s important to wash your hands after taking off your gloves to completely eliminate the risk of infection.
Watch the following video and learn how to wash your hands correctly:
3. Drink only mineral water
You should prefer mineral water, which comes in a bottle, or drink filtered and boiled water, avoiding drinking tap or well water, as the risk of the water being contaminated is greater. Furthermore, it is not recommended to consume raw milk and its derivatives, even if it is from cows or goats.
4. Avoid contact with animal feces
To avoid toxoplasmosis during pregnancy, contact with animals, especially stray cats, should be avoided, as it is not known whether the animal is infected or not. Furthermore, contact with animals that are not properly treated increases not only the risk of toxoplasmosis, but also of other infections that can cause complications for the pregnant woman.
If you have cats at home, you should avoid touching the animal’s sand and feces and, if you do have to clean them, you should do it daily, using gloves and a dustpan and washing your hands and throwing the gloves in the trash immediately afterwards. . It is also important to only feed cats cooked meat or food, in order to avoid the development of microorganisms that could contaminate the pregnant woman.
How to treat toxoplasmosis during pregnancy
Treatment for toxoplasmosis during pregnancy normally varies with the severity of the pregnant woman’s infection and depends on gestational age, and a blood test is necessary to confirm the disease, which normally does not cause symptoms in pregnant women but can be very dangerous. for the baby, which could lead to miscarriage or the baby being born with problems such as mental retardation, hydrocephalus or blindness. See more about toxoplasmosis in pregnancy.
