What is toxoplasmosis?

Toxoplasmosis is an infection with the Toxoplasma gondii parasite, one of the most common human infections in the world, and for most healthy people it causes mild flu-like illness or nothing at all. You pick it up three ways: from cat feces, since cats shed the parasite after eating infected prey, and it becomes infectious in feces after one to five days; from soil, sand, or water contaminated by cat feces, which is why gardening is a route; and from eating raw or undercooked meat carrying the parasite. Two groups face the serious version. First, pregnancy: the CDC says if you get infected for the first time while pregnant or just before, you can pass the infection to your baby, with consequences ranging from eye and brain damage at birth to problems that emerge years later. Second, people with weakened immune systems, in whom the infection can reactivate and attack the brain, causing headache, confusion, poor coordination, fever, and seizures. Prevention is concrete: change the litter box daily, because fresh feces are not yet infectious; wear gloves for gardening and soil work; wash hands after soil, sand, or cat contact; cook meat thoroughly; and do not feed cats raw meat. Indoor cats fed commercial food rarely carry it, so the advice is manage the litter box, not rehome the cat.