Toxoplasmosis is a parasitic disease caused by the protozoan Toxoplasma gondii. The parasite infects most genera of warm-blooded animals, including humans, but the primary host is the felid (cat) family. Up to one third of the world's human population is estimated to carry a Toxoplasma infection.

Cervical lymph nodes are lymph nodes found in the neck.

Level I: Submental and submandibular nodes

The following can cause the submental lymph nodes to become swollen:
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Toxoplasmosis
an infection that is caused by the parasite Toxoplasma gondii. Symptoms include headache, swollen lymph glands, mild fever, muscle pain, and sore throat.

This is a case of a 13-year-old boy suffering from acquired toxoplasmosis, in which submandibular lymphadenopathy was the only clinical sign of the disease.

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The toxoplasma gondii parasites need vitamin B to live.

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Toxo usually comes back after the first episode. People who have had toxo should keep taking the anti-toxo drugs at a lower, maintenance dose.

Symptoms

You probably won't know if you've contracted toxoplasmosis, although some people may develop toxoplasmosis symptoms similar to those of the flu or mononucleosis, such as:

Body aches
Swollen lymph nodes
Headache
Fever
Fatigue
Occasionally, a sore throat

Recurrent toxoplasmosis

A case of recurrent toxoplasmosis in a previously healthy 34-year-old woman is reported. Although she was treated 3 times with co-trimoxazole, which in our experience has been efficient in the treatment of toxoplasmosis, and responded to treatment clinically and serologically, she relapsed with clinical symptoms . . .

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*tissue cysts, which persist for the lifespan of the secondary host.
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The feral or domesticated feline is this organism's preferred host, since it can only reproduce in cats.

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When a healthy individual becomes infected with the parasite, his or her immune system neutralizes the threat and the parasite falls dormant. The inactive organism remains present in the body for life, creating increased immunity in the event of future exposure.

In particular, humans with latent infections of the common protozoan parasite Toxoplasma gondii appear to experience a variety of long-term personality changes. For instance, in infected women, intelligence, superego strength (rule-conscious, dutiful, conscientious, conforming, moralistic, staid and rule-bound) and affectothymia (warm, outgoing, attentive to others, kindly, easy-going, participating and likes people) are higher, while infected men have lower intelligence, superego strength and novelty-seeking (low novelty-seeking indicates rigid, loyal, stoic, slow-tempered and frugal personalities); both infected men and women have higher levels of guilt-proneness (they tend to be more apprehensive, self-doubting, worried, guilt prone, insecure, worrying and self-blaming.

A link between culture and T. gondii hypothetically results from a behavioural manipulation that the parasite uses to increase its transmission to the next host in the life cycle: a cat.

Some cases of acute toxoplasmosis in adults are associated with psychiatric symptoms such as delusions and hallucinations. A review of 114 cases of acquired toxoplasmosis noted that “psychiatric disturbances were very frequent” in 24 of the case-patients (10). Case reports describe a 22-year-old woman who exhibited paranoid and bizarre delusions (“she said she had no veins in her arms and legs”), disorganized speech, and flattened affect; a 32-year-old woman who had auditory and visual hallucinations; and a 34-year-old woman who experienced auditory hallucinations and a thought disorder (11). Schizophrenia was first diagnosed in all three patients, but later neurologic symptoms developed, which led to the correct diagnosis of Toxoplasma encephalitis.

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some individuals with adult toxoplasmosis develop psychotic symptoms similar to those of schizophrenia
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epidemiologically, there are many similarities between toxoplasmosis and schizophrenia

After proliferation of tachyzoites in various organs during the acute stage, the parasite forms cysts preferentially in the brain and establishes a chronic infection, which is a balance between host immunity and the parasite's evasion of the immune response. A variety of brain cells, including astrocytes and neurons, can be infected.
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A possible outcome of congenital infections is severe neurological and ophthalmological disease. The outcome of the other 2 modes of infection is usually a chronic, latent infection that persists for life. This latent infection has been assumed, until recently, to be clinically asymptomatic; as indicated in the accompanying articles, this assumption is being reconsidered.
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The outcome of T. gondii infection is strongly influenced by both parasite and host determinants.

But because T. gondii can reproduce only in felines, it wants its host to be eaten by cats, not by just any carnivore. And because cats hunt live prey and do not eat carrion, T. gondii must not immediately kill its temporary host.

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