This Article  • References  • Full text PDF  • Send to a friend  • Save in My Folder  • Save to citation manager  • Permissions  Citing Articles  • Contact me when this article is cited  Related Content  • Similar articles in JAMA  Social Bookmarking   What's this?

Brian W. Jack, MD; Larry Culpepper, MD, MPH
Memorial Hospital of Rhode Island Pawtucket

JAMA. 1991;265(2):211.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text PDF and any section headings.

In Reply. —

We appreciate Dr Frenkel's comments, which emphasize what we believe to be the most important aspect of preconception care: the ability of health professionals to provide comprehensive health promotion and counseling to reduce risks to future pregnancy. We agree that serological testing for antibody against Toxoplasma gondii during pregnancy is not optimal because of the poor predictive value of such testing; however, testing before pregnancy does have benefit over testing during pregnancy since those already positive and therefore not in need of further testing or hygienic measures in any future pregnancy are identified. The prevalence of toxoplasmosis infection and the prevalence of susceptibility to new infection during pregnancy vary greatly in the different parts of the United States, ranging from 50% to 95% susceptibility,¹ and the extent of the morbidity and mortality due to toxoplasmosis is not known with certainty.² Subtracting those who test positive . . . [Full Text PDF of this Article]

CiteULike    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    Twitter     What's this?