IngentaConnect Asymptomatic human carriers of Leishmania infantum: possible rese...

Authors: Fakhar, M.¹; Motazedian, M.H.²; Hatam, G.R.²; Asgari, Q.²; Kalantari, M.²; Mohebali, M.³

Source: Annals of Tropical Medicine and Parasitology, Volume 102, Number 7, October 2008 , pp. 577-583(7)

Abstract:

Over the last decade, the incidence of visceral leishmaniasis (VL) has increased in many districts of the province of Fars, in southern Iran. Recent epidemiological reports indicate that asymptomatic human infections with Leishmania infantum (the causative agent of VL throughout the Mediterranean basin) occur more frequently in Iran than was previously believed.

Between 2004 and 2006, blood samples were collected from 802 apparently healthy subjects from communities, in the north-west and south-east of Fars province, where VL cases had been recorded. Each of these samples was tested for anti-Leishmania antibodies, in direct agglutination tests (DAT), and for L. infantum kinetoplast DNA, in PCR-based assays. Of the 426 subjects from north-western Fars, eight (1.9%) were found seropositive and 68 (16.0%) PCR-positive. The corresponding values for the 376 subjects from south-eastern Fars were lower, with five (1.3%) seropositive and 32 (8.5%) PCR-positive. Of the 100 PCR-positive subjects, 18 (18.0%) each lived in a household in which there had been a case of VL, and six (6.0%) had had VL themselves (in each case, more than a year before the blood sampling for the present study). Although 21 of the PCR-positives have now been followed-up for at least 18 months, none has developed symptomatic VL. Since positivity in the PCR-based assay probably indicated the presence of L. infantum amastigotes in the peripheral blood of 12.5% of the subjects, it is clear that asymptomatic human carriers of L. infantum are quite common in the study areas and probably act as reservoirs in the transmission of the parasite, to humans and to dogs, by sandflies.

Document Type: Research article

DOI: 10.1179/136485908X337526

Affiliations: 1: Department of Parasitology and Mycology, School of Medicine/Molecular and Cellular Biology Research Centre, Mazandaran University of Medical Sciences, P.O. Box 48175-1665, Sari, Iran 2: Department of Parasitology and Mycology, School of Medicine, Shiraz University of Medical Sciences, P.O. Box 71345-1735, Shiraz, Iran 3: Department of Parasitology and Mycology, School of Public Health and Institute of Health Research, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, P.O. Box 14155-6446, Tehran, Iran

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Asymptomatic human carriers of Leishmania infantum: possible reservoirs for Mediterranean visceral leishmaniasis in southern Iran