The disease burden of congenital toxoplasmosis in Denmark, 2014

Congenital toxoplasmosis (CT) causes a substantial disease burden worldwide. The aim of this study was to estimate the disease burden of CT in Denmark, a developed country with free public healthcare and nationwide data available. Using data primarily from two public health surveillance programmes conducted between 1992 and 2007, we estimated the incidence, occurrence of sequelae, mortality and the burden of disease in terms of disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) of CT in Denmark in 2014.

We estimated that 14 children were born with CT in 2014, of which six will have developed sequelae by the age of 12. CT resulted in a total disease burden of 123 DALYs (95% uncertainty interval [UI], 100–148), of which 78 (95% UI, 64–94) were due to foetal loss and 2 (95% UI, 1–3) were due to neonatal death; the remaining burden was due to moderate to severe life-long sequelae.

A comparison of the estimated incidence of CT with the number of reported CT cases in 2008–2014 indicated that for each reported CT case, at least five other CT cases could be expected to have occurred and gone unreported. Early onset, severity, and life-long duration of sequelae have a major effect on the disease burden of CT.

Our data suggest that CT is under-diagnosed or under-reported in Denmark. The estimated disease burden and public health impact in Denmark is lower than in other European countries, highlighting the need for country-specific studies.