[Fatal toxoplasmosis in children].

Fatal cases of toxoplasmosis seen at the Hospital Infantil de México between 1943 and 1973, together with postmortem studies are reviewed. There were five postmortem studies where it was possible to identify toxoplasma in histologic lesions. Clinical manifestations were grouped in pictures; thus, the infectious picture, the intracranial hypertensive, the neurological and the meningeal pictures were made up. In all five cases of this small group, toxoplasma was identified within and without parasitized cells and was found specially abundant in the central nervous system. Considering the early initiation of neurological manifestations and the intensity of encephalic lesions, it may be assumed that all five cases of prenatal toxoplasmosis. The reason why an infection so usually light in the mother is able to cause a disease so severe in the fetus seems to have an explanation on the fact that toxoplasma increases in virulence when reaching the product as second-step infection. In all five cases, the intensity of the lesions agrees with the severeness of the clinical picture and with the early manifestations following birth. The parasite was identified in the brain in all cases and in some of them, in the liver and lungs.