Significance of chronic toxoplasmosis in epidemiology of road traffic accidents in Russian Federation

Studies carried out in Moscow residents have revealed that the prevalence of chronic toxoplasmosis is very close to those in countries of Eastern and Central Europe. Our findings also demonstrated a statistically significant relationship between the rate of traffic accidents and the seroprevalence of chronic toxoplasmosis in drivers who were held responsible for accidents. The latter was 2.37 times higher in drivers who were involved in road accidents compared with control groups. These results suggest that the consequences of chronic toxoplasmosis (particularly a slower reaction time and decreased concentration) might contribute to the peculiarities of the epidemiology of road traffic accidents in the Russian Federation and might interfere with the successful implementation of the Federal Programme named “Increase road traffic safety”. Suggestions for how to address overcome this problem are discussed in this paper.

[1]  J. Flegr,et al.  Toxoplasmosis – A Global Threat. Correlation of Latent Toxoplasmosis with Specific Disease Burden in a Set of 88 Countries , 2014, PloS one.

[2]  J. Armendáriz-Borunda,et al.  Seroepidemiology of Toxoplasma gondii infection in drivers involved in road traffic accidents in the metropolitan area of Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico , 2013, Parasites & Vectors.

[3]  Jaroslav Flegr,et al.  Influence of latent Toxoplasma infection on human personality, physiology and morphology: pros and cons of the Toxoplasma–human model in studying the manipulation hypothesis , 2013, Journal of Experimental Biology.

[4]  G. McConkey,et al.  Toxoplasma gondii-altered host behaviour: clues as to mechanism of action. , 2010, Folia parasitologica.

[5]  A. Dirican,et al.  Higher prevalence of toxoplasmosis in victims of traffic accidents suggest increased risk of traffic accident in Toxoplasma-infected inhabitants of Istanbul and its suburbs. , 2009, Forensic science international.

[6]  Jan Havlíček,et al.  Increased incidence of traffic accidents in Toxoplasma-infected military drivers and protective effect RhD molecule revealed by a large-scale prospective cohort study , 2009, BMC infectious diseases.

[7]  J. Havlíček,et al.  Toxoplasma and reaction time: role of toxoplasmosis in the origin, preservation and geographical distribution of Rh blood group polymorphism , 2008, Parasitology.

[8]  V. Rahimi-Movaghar,et al.  Comparison of road traffic fatalities and injuries in Iran with other countries. , 2008, Chinese journal of traumatology = Zhonghua chuang shang za zhi.

[9]  J. Flegr,et al.  Sex-dependent toxoplasmosis-associated differences in testosterone concentration in humans , 2008, Parasitology.

[10]  Dolgikh Ti,et al.  Epidemiological and clinicoimmunological monitoring of toxoplasmosis in the Omsk Region , 2008 .

[11]  A. Özbilgin,et al.  Is Toxoplasma gondii a potential risk for traffic accidents in Turkey? , 2006, Forensic science international.

[12]  K. Lafferty.  Can the common brain parasite, Toxoplasma gondii, influence human culture? , 2006, Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences.

[13]  J. Havlíček,et al.  Decreased level of psychobiological factor novelty seeking and lower intelligence in men latently infected with the protozoan parasite Toxoplasma gondii Dopamine, a missing link between schizophrenia and toxoplasmosis? , 2003, Biological Psychology.

[14]  Z. Šmahel,et al.  BMC Infectious Diseases BioMed Central Research article BMC 22002, Infectious Diseases , 2002 .

[15]  J. Havlíček,et al.  Decrease of psychomotor performance in subjects with latent ‘asymptomatic’ toxoplasmosis , 2001, Parasitology.

[16]  L. Weiss,et al.  Toxoplasma gondii: from animals to humans. , 2000, International journal for parasitology.

[17]  J. Havlíček,et al.  Changes in the personality profile of young women with latent toxoplasmosis. , 1999, Folia parasitologica.

[18]  J. Flegr,et al.  Induction of changes in human behaviour by the parasitic protozoan Toxoplasma gondii , 1996, Parasitology.

[19]  P. Hohlfeld,et al.  [Epidemiology of toxoplasmosis in Switzerland: national study of seroprevalence monitored in pregnant women 1990-1991]. , 1995, Schweizerische medizinische Wochenschrift. Supplementum.

[20]  D. Macdonald,et al.  Effect of Toxoplasma gondii upon neophobic behaviour in wild brown rats, Rattus norvegicus , 1994, Parasitology.

[21]  J. Flegr,et al.  Influence of chronic toxoplasmosis on some human personality factors. , 1994, Folia parasitologica.