ABSTRACT
This study aimed to determine of the seroprevalence of visceral leishmaniasis to design a prevention and control program in Bojnoord district. This was a descriptive and cross sectional study with multistage random sampling method. The study was carried out on children up to 12 years old and 10% of adult's population in 8 rural areas of Bojnoord district in 2007. In total, 1608 blood samples were collected to detect anti-Leishmania antibodies. All the samples were tested by direct agglutination test [DAT]. In order to determine Leishmania species, necropsy was performed on four suspected dogs in the studied areas. The species of Leishmania was determined by RAPD-PCR and PCR-RFLP methods using to amplify the ribosomal internal transcribed spacer 1 [ITS1]. Thirty and eight [2.36%] out of 1 608 collected blood samples had anti- Leishmania antibodies at titer 1:800 and nine [0.56%] were just positive at 1:3200 by DAT. There was no statistically significant difference between female and male seroprevalence [p>0/05]. The seoprevalence in children <=12 years old compared to individuals greater than 12 years old did not show any statistically significant [p>0/05]. Amastigotes were observed in all 4 necropsied dogs. The species of Leishmania isolated from 2 dogs, was determined as L.Infantum. Their ITS1 sequences were registered with Accession numbers EU810776 and EU810777 in NCBI. These findings showed that visceral leishmaniasis has been circulated with low endemicity in Bojnoord district. Therefore an appropriate monitoring system is needed for health services in this area
Subject(s)
Humans , Male , Female , Agglutination Tests , Seroepidemiologic Studies , Cross-Sectional Studies , Leishmania , Polymerase Chain ReactionABSTRACT
Visceral leishmaniasis [VL] is one of the most important parasitic diseases which is endemic in different parts of Iran. Serological studies were conducted by direct agglutination test [DAT] on 12144 human serum samples, collected from four geographical zones of Iran. Sero prevalence, geographical distribution, clinical signs and symptoms for human visceral leishmaniasis based on DAT for the period of 2002 through 2005 were determined. From 516 kala-azar cases detected: 50.6% were from Meshkin-shahr and Moghan districts in Ardabil Province, northwest of Iran and 49.4% were detected from other areas of Iran. In physical examination of seropositive cases, which were detected by DAT with anti-leishmanial antibodies at titers of 1: 3200 to 1: 102400, almost 50% of suspected individuals showed the classical kala-azar signs and symptoms. Predominant signs and symptoms in 233 hospitalized patients with anti-Leishmania antibodies at 1:3200 and higher, were fever [88.0%] and splenomegaly [84.5%]. Statistically significant difference was found between males [58%] and females [42%] [P< 0.01]. Moreover, 93.6% of the VL patients were < 5 yr of age, and 6.4% were older than 5 yr that this difference was statistically significant [P< 0.01]. From 1383 serum samples collected from domestic dogs in the villages that are known as endemic foci of human leishmaniasis, 152 [11.0%] were positive by DAT [>/= 1:320]. Parasitological and serological examinations that were performed in 30 wild canines showed that 10% of these animals were infected by L. infantum. L. infantum Lon49 is the principal agent of the disease in human as well as animal reservoir hosts in different parts of Iran. For the first time in Iran, L. tropica isolated from both skin lesions in the face and bone marrow aspiration in a HIV+ man who co-infected with VL as well as in an infected dog from Ardabil Province