If you're starting a family, consider these words from Robert Sapolsky:

"The parasite my lab is beginning to focus on is one in the world of mammals, where parasites are changing mammalian behavior. It's got to do with this parasite, this protozoan called Toxoplasma. If you're ever pregnant, if you're ever around anyone who's pregnant, you know you immediately get skittish about cat feces, cat bedding, cat everything, because it could carry Toxo. And you do not want to get Toxoplasma into a fetal nervous system. It's a disaster."

"There's a long-standing literature that absolutely shows there's a statistical link between Toxo infection and schizophrenia. It's not a big link, but it's solidly there. Schizophrenics have higher than expected rates of having been infected with Toxo, and not particularly the case for other related parasites. Links between schizophrenia and mothers who had house cats during pregnancy."

https://www.edge.org/conversation/robert_sapolsky-toxo

Makes you rethink the cause and effect behind "the crazy cat lady"!

Can also really fuck up your eyes

https://aapos.org/client_data/files/2015/1230_fig2congenital...

And when you have that black hole very close (or over) that light part, it means that your toxo lesion is over the sport where all your eye nerves go, and then you become blind. Or almost, depending the exact position. Or you are "cured" but keep seeing eye floaters for the rest of your life.

What's that from?

This makes me wonder, if such a high percentage of people are already infected by this parasite why should mothers avoid handling cat litter boxes when pregnant? They're already infected, no?

Is the parasite dormant when it settles itself after infection? i.e. when you've been infected in the past, there is no risk to the baby, but if you're exposed to it again you can infect the baby?

Yes. After initial infection, which usually presents asymptomatically or with flu-style malaise, the parasites form cysts in the brain and stay there, where they aren't transmissible. The danger to the fetus comes with a new infection in the transmissible phase, which is likely to disrupt the fetal nervous system in lethal or severely damaging ways to which an adult brain isn't so susceptible.

(Source: I read a lot. Could be wrong! Don't think I am.)

This is why I am skeptical/cautious about the "let's just kill all the mosquitos" plans I see floated ...

Even if it's true that mosquitos can be removed from the foodchain with no negative effects ... are we so sure that wherever malaria goes (and I think it will go somewhere) won't be worse than mosquitos ?

If malaria had some other way to spread it wouldn't wait until mosquitos were wiped out to use it. It's not like the parasite is intelligent or anything.

I don't worry about malaria per se; as another poster noted, if it had a different vector, we'd see it already.

I do worry about removing critters from the food chain; we've seen plenty of second- and third-order surprises from that. What do the things that eat mosquitos find next-most-tasty, for starters?

*sexually attracted to cat urine