Linked Life Data

18817598

Source:http://linkedlifedata.com/resource/pubmed/id/18817598

Statements in which the resource exists as a subject.
PredicateObject
rdf:type
lifeskim:mentions
pubmed:issue
7
pubmed:dateCreated
2008-9-26
pubmed:abstractText
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.
pubmed:language
eng
pubmed:journal
pubmed:citationSubset
IM
pubmed:chemical
pubmed:status
MEDLINE
pubmed:month
Oct
pubmed:issn
0003-4983
pubmed:author
pubmed:issnType
Print
pubmed:volume
102
pubmed:owner
NLM
pubmed:authorsComplete
Y
pubmed:pagination
577-83
pubmed:dateRevised
2009-5-18
pubmed:meshHeading
pubmed:year
2008
pubmed:articleTitle
Asymptomatic human carriers of Leishmania infantum: possible reservoirs for Mediterranean visceral leishmaniasis in southern Iran.
pubmed:affiliation
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. mahdif53@yahoo.com
pubmed:publicationType
Journal Article