Citation

Stepanova EV, Kondrashin AV, Sergiev VP, Morozova LF, Turbabina NA, Maksimova MS, Brazhnikov AI, Shevchenko SB, Morozov EN. PLoS One 2017; 12(9): e0184930.

Affiliation

Department of Tropical, Parasitic Diseases and Disinfectology, Russian Medical Academy of Continuous Professional Education, Moscow, Russian Federation.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2017, Public Library of Science)

DOI

10.1371/journal.pone.0184930

PMID

28957427

Abstract

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.

Language: en