Toxoplasmosis and hand sanitisers-really anxious

[Ginger84]

I am currently 31 weeks pregnant and have been freaking out about toxoplasmosis from day one - thinking back I probably should have done a test to find out if I am immune. Anyhow, I have tried as much as possible to be SUPER careful about everything to the extent of obsession. Three days ago I accidently hit my thumb and I have a small cut (a small bit of the skin was cut off). It bled a lot on the day and I cleaned it well and now it doesn't bleed anymore. It is a small cut anyway. Since I wash my hand A LOT though, it keeps releasing serous fluid when I exaggerate in washing my hands and if it stays dry for a while it also dries.

Today, I went to the park with my dog and another dog who was eating grass and playing in the soil ran into me and bumped into my hand with the cut. The cut looked dry to me, but it is not healed. I looked at my hand after and saw that it had a bit of soil from his mouth. I immediately rushed to get out my hand sanitiser and cleaned the soil off my hand first with multiple rounds of hand sanitisation (without touching the cut) and then did a full round of putting the gel on both my hands and rubbing all including the cut. The sanitiser didn't burn on the cut, which gave me the impression it may not have been an open cut after all. The sanitiser is composed of alcohol denat (so I would assume it is alcohol based) and 57% ethanol. I was hoping that this would be enough to kill the parasite, since I also had no other way to reach warm water and soap before going back home!

However, when I got home I searched a few websites and while some say that disinfectants may not be enough to kill the parasite, others say you should wash your hands with soap and warm water OR hand sanitisers (preferably alcohol based) as a preventative measure. So now I am freaking out again since I am not sure if this pup simply threw toxoplasmosis on me by bumping into this cut on my hand. I also don't know what else I could have done...I am really not sure what are the chances of me contracting toxo this way...

Oh my word step away from Google it will make you insane! You won't have contracted it this way...what do you think happens when pregnant women have cats or dogs (I have both!)

You are really overreacting...all I did different was not empty the litter tray...I still had my cat sit on me and sleep at the end of my bed!

I don't want to come across as patronising, I promise, I just want you to see you have gone off the deep end with this and a dog nudging your hand is fine.

I had similar Toxo worries. Please try and relax. You honestly wouldn't have got it this way. I have had cats all my life...I have.emptied litter trays all my life too. I stopped when pregnant but still freaked out. I had a test in the end because I accidently ate undercooked sausage...turns out I didn't have it and had never had it....point being...if I have lived around cats for 30 odd years and never got Toxo...then you certainly wouldn't have it from this incident. I know what it's like when you are worrying about something like this....feels like nothing will convince you that it is ok...but this really is ok. X

This isn’t a normal level of anxiety. Are you currently seeing someone for your mental health?

This isn’t a normal level of anxiety. Are you currently seeing someone for your mental health?

You absolutely
Must speak to your midwife or GP about this, your level of worry about this is not normal. Not at all.
Hope you feel better soon.

Thank you all for your replies. Actually I am glad that you all think that I am overreacting and my level of anxiety about this is just over the roof and that this is not an entirely plausible way of catching it. I have had severe anxieties about different things during pregnancy and toxoplasmosis has been one of my major worries! The problem is that I come from a country where virtually no pregnant woman is ever told of its adverse effects or told to take any precautions against it. They are just routinely tested. So I have only been exposed to the severity of this if contracted during ever since I moved to the UK and every time I have a conversation about it from a health professional it scares me since it seems to me you can virtually contract from anything...So I started to be extremely careful about everything in order to avoid any possible scenario, which has virtually exhausted me (and everyone around me) :( My DH usually calms me down and tells me this particular situation is highly improbable, etc., but yesterday he told me that he thinks that this might be a possible situation to contract it, which freaked me out a bit. I was under the impression that if you take the usual hygienic measures all should be fine, but then you consult Google and it tells you hand sanitizers do nothing to a parasite! My MW is pretty relaxed about toxo since she never seen a pregnant woman contract it during her years of working, but that doesn't mean anything to me really. Anyhow, I am actually quite glad that you think that this is highly improbable...I wouldn't have been this scared if I didn't have a cut on my hand which may be classified as an open wound...Thank you for taking the time to reply.

God love you, I remember being exactly the same.
You will be absolutely FINE. I promise.

When I was pg with my first child, I helpwd my mum clear aome rubbish atbthe botyom of her garden before I knew I was pregnant. She had cats ans it was an area where doxes and cats used to pee. Once I found out I wa pg I worried and worried and worries about doing this and, after a few weeks, had convinced myself I was harbouring toxoplasmosis. I paid doe a private test, fully expecting it to be positive. Needless to say, it was negative.

You are freaking out about nothing, as many of us have done before. You really dont have toxoplasmosis. Would a test ro rule it out help you feel less anxious?

Then try and chill xx

I live in a country where toxoplasmosis is much more common than in the UK (due to the amount of uncooked meat in the diet) and get tested for it once a month and have been given loads ofrules to follow. But even my gyno (who is generally over-cautious about everything) told me that contracting it is very unlikely unless I am eating raw meat, soil-coated veg or rooting around in cat litter trays (cats are the primary hosts, not dogs). I think it's extremely unlikely that you have contracted it in this way.

You could ask for a test to rule it out if you think it would reassure you (and if you come from a country where it's routinely tested due to diet you might well have had it pre-pregancy, in which case you can relax). However, I think with or without testing you should ask for support for your anxiety as that seems like the real issue here (and if this is health anxiety, even if you were cleared for toxo you'd probably find something else to fixate on).