Ocular Toxoplasmosis in Africa: A Narrative Review of the Literature

Purpose: To present a narrative review about ocular toxoplasmosis epidemiology, disease burden and prevalent African parasitic strains. Methods: An initial search for MeSH terms was conducted with a posterior advanced search in two electronic databases. Full text reading was performed. Results: Animal African studies have identified Toxoplasma gondii type II, type III, Africa 1, and Africa 3 strains. Seroprevalence varies from 6.4% to 74.5%. Nevertheless, there is a scarcity of epidemiology and serotyping information about ocular toxoplasmosis. African studies have demonstrated that uveitis patients present high frequencies of ocular toxoplasmosis. There is a lack of studies describing specific clinical characteristics, which can be related, to environmental and socioeconomic factors, parasite serotype and genotype, and genetic susceptibility of the host. Conclusion: As Toxoplasma gondii has more virulent strains in the Southern hemisphere, it is relevant to determine African strain types and the correlation between the infecting strains and the clinical manifestations.