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Infection due to a parasite, baptized Toxoplasma gondii, toxoplasmosis would affect about half of the population without apparent symptoms. According to a team of American researchers, infected people appear “more beautiful and healthier” than others.
We hear about toxoplasmosis very often in connection with pregnancy or for immunocompromised people, for whom it represents a danger. However, this infection caused by a parasite is more widespread than we think, there are between 200 and 300,000 new infections per year in France. The parasite is present in raw meat or on the skin of insufficiently washed fruits and vegetables.
Use of a comparative grading scale
Researchers had the idea of measuring the attractiveness of people affected by this infection. To reach their conclusions, the scientists collected photos of the face of each participant, affected or not by the disease.
They were then submitted to other volunteers, responsible for rating the pictures from 1 to 10: 1 for “repulsive or unhealthy” and 10 for “very attractive or healthy”.
In addition, composite images of a standard profile of an infected and non-infected person were created and submitted to the appreciation of the participants.
Unexpected benefit to this infection
In addition to a more beautiful appearance and better health, women affected by a toxoplasmosis infection would also have “more sexual partners” and a lower than average “body mass index”. In infected participants, scientists note a lower facial asymmetry, which would participate in the phenomenon.
Testosterone in question?
The researchers believe that their study “offers new evidence that T. gondii infection may also be associated with phenotypic changes in infected humans as well as with a better assessment of their attractiveness and health”. They think that the consequences of this infection may be linked to the testosterone levels, modified by the parasite, which would cause these changes. Note, however, that this hypothesis has not been confirmed with certainty.
In the past, toxoplasmosis has been linked to severe psychiatric disorders such as schizophrenia or tantrums without any of these hypotheses having been subsequently confirmed…
Serious illness during pregnancy
Toxoplasmosis is a zoonosis (infection transmitted by animals) due to a protozoan, which can evolve in all animal species in a latent form (toxoplasma infection) or in an evolutionary form (toxoplasma disease). Humans become infected by consuming contaminated water or food. Generally mild, it can be very serious if it occurs during pregnancy, leading to a risk of damage to the central nervous system of the fetus.