TY - JOUR
T1 - Leishmaniasis in Turkey
T2 - Molecular characterization of Leishmania from human and canine clinical samples
AU - Toz, Seray Ozensoy
AU - Nasereddin, Abedelmajeed
AU - Ozbel, Yusuf
AU - Ertabaklar, Hatice
AU - Culha, Gulnaz
AU - Sevil, Naser
AU - Ziya Alkan, M.
AU - Jaffe, Charles L.
PY - 2009/11
Y1 - 2009/11
N2 - Human leishmaniasis, both visceral and cutaneous, and canine leishmaniasis have been reported in Turkey for centuries. However, the advent of new diagnostic tools during the last 30 years has led to the recognition that leishmaniasis is an important public health problem throughout the country. In most disease foci both canine and human leishmaniases exist together and identification of parasite species causing these diseases is a pre-requisite for understanding disease epidemiology. A total of 109 samples obtained from human and canine leishmaniasis cases were examined using internal transcribed spacer 1 PCR followed by restriction fragment length polymorphism analysis. Our results indicate that two species, Leishmania tropica and Leishmania infantum, are primarily responsible for cutaneous and visceral leishmaniasis, respectively, in Turkey. However, a new focus of human cutaneous leishmaniasis caused by L. infantum in Hatay region is described. This finding further stresses the importance of Leishmania species molecular characterization in prescribing appropriate therapy and understanding the disease's transmission in different endemic foci.
AB - Human leishmaniasis, both visceral and cutaneous, and canine leishmaniasis have been reported in Turkey for centuries. However, the advent of new diagnostic tools during the last 30 years has led to the recognition that leishmaniasis is an important public health problem throughout the country. In most disease foci both canine and human leishmaniases exist together and identification of parasite species causing these diseases is a pre-requisite for understanding disease epidemiology. A total of 109 samples obtained from human and canine leishmaniasis cases were examined using internal transcribed spacer 1 PCR followed by restriction fragment length polymorphism analysis. Our results indicate that two species, Leishmania tropica and Leishmania infantum, are primarily responsible for cutaneous and visceral leishmaniasis, respectively, in Turkey. However, a new focus of human cutaneous leishmaniasis caused by L. infantum in Hatay region is described. This finding further stresses the importance of Leishmania species molecular characterization in prescribing appropriate therapy and understanding the disease's transmission in different endemic foci.
KW - Canine leishmaniasis
KW - Cutaneous leishmaniasis
KW - Leishmania infantum
KW - Leishmania tropica
KW - Visceral leishmaniasis
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=70350006671&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1111/j.1365-3156.2009.02384.x
DO - 10.1111/j.1365-3156.2009.02384.x
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C2 - 19737374
AN - SCOPUS:70350006671
SN - 1360-2276
VL - 14
SP - 1401
EP - 1406
JO - Tropical Medicine and International Health
JF - Tropical Medicine and International Health
IS - 11
ER -