The idea that having toxoplasmosis indicates blood doping is nonsense. It might be worth considering if you would care to offer some data; to support your leap of faith; on the percentage of any sample groups (athletes or non athletes) who have contracted toxoplasmosis as a result of blood doping or indeed blood transfusions?
In addition, what is the % of those suffering from toxoplasmosis who contracted it through blood transfusions or blood doping?
Let's see the data that suggests either scenario is common.
Millions of people have toxoplasmosis in their system from contamination from cats, soil or undercooked meat. Although people can be infected through contact with cat faeces, the far more common way for someone to have contact with the parasite that causes toxoplasmosis is through unhygienic handling of raw or undercooked meat, drinking contaminated water and exposure to garden soil or sandboxes where infected cats may have defecated. Coe was a man who liked his steak rare.
'In the US, the most common way to get infected with the toxoplasmosis parasite is by eating raw meat or unwashed fruits and vegetables (Cornell, 2008).'
Fortunately, most people have been exposed to or infected by Toxoplasma and already have immunity to the disease. People with weakened immune systems run the greatest risk of contracting toxoplasmosis.
Those in relatively good health will usually show no signs or simply have mild, flu-like symptoms. About 10-20% of people infected with toxoplasmosis will develop symptoms similar to flu or glandular fever. “Symptoms usually appear a week or two after infection, wax and wane and then subside gradually over a period of two weeks to several months.”
http://www.nytimes.com/1982/10/27/garden/personal-health-247906.html?pagewanted=2Some people have swollen lymph glands or muscle aches and pains that last for a month or more. In healthy people who show symptoms, a flu-like feeling is the most common (which may result in the mistaken diagnosis of infectious mononucleosis)
. These symptoms also include:
• fever
• swollen lymph nodes, especially in the neck
• headache
• muscle aches and pains
Occasionally, patients may complain of a sore throat. These symptoms can last for a month or more.
http://www.healthline.com/health/toxoplasmosis#Symptoms3These are the symptoms Coe showed. He didn’t have severe toxoplasmosis, which effects the brain, eyes and organs.
Most people live with it without showing anything more than flu like symptoms. It can be serious if you put your body through physical stress. For an Olympic athlete training every day with a condition living off your energy sources, then it's going to result in a 1 or 2% drop in performance. That's the difference between winning in 1:42 and being in the middle of the pack in 1:45.
In addition, the practice in that period for blood transfusions by sportsmen was almost universally autologous blood doping. If he was putting his own blood back into his body then the only way he could have got it through blood transfusions would be from his own blood! Which means he must already have had it in his system through one of the regular means cited above.
Coe having toxoplasmosis is no indication at all of blood doping unless he was happy sharing used needles, which seems extremely far fetched. A total red herring.