[The cat, the women and the toxoplasma: What advice should be given to a pregnant woman who is seronegative for toxoplasmosis and owns a cat?].

Toxoplasmosis is a cosmopolitan protozoal disease caused by Toxoplasmagondii. Several studies have shown that at one instant approximately 1% of cats shed T. gondii oocysts in their faeces. In humans, the infection by this parasite is most often asymptomatic except for immunocompromised persons and seronegative pregnant women that were infected during the pregnancy. These women transmit the parasite to their foetuses who develop an infection with a variable gravity. In this context, there are two questions: what is the risk for a seronegative pregnant woman living with a cat and what attitude should she take toward this cat? Several preventive measures should be implemented to reduce the risk of T. gondii transmission from cats to pregnant women.