1Department of Biology, Faculty of Science, University of Damascus, Damascus, Syrian Arab Republic. 2Public Health Department, Ministry of Health, Damascus, Syrian Arab Republic. ABSTRACT Leishmaniasis causes significant morbidity and mortality in areas where it is endemic. A seroprevalence survey was conducted in 2 endemic villages in Daraa, Syrian Arab Republic, where 80 out of 345 children (...

BACKGROUND There is a need for sensitive and specific rapid diagnostic tests (RDT) for canine visceral leishmaniasis. The aims of this study were to evaluate the diagnostic performance of immunochromatographic dipstick RDTs using rK39 antigen for canine visceral leishmaniasis by (i) investigating the sensitivity of RDTs to detect infection, disease and infectiousness in a longitudinal cohort st...

The latex agglutination test (KAtex), direct agglutination test (DAT), and the rK39 immuno-chromatographic strip test (dipstick test) were evaluated for their role in the diagnosis and prognosis of visceral leishmaniasis (kala-azar) in India. Sera and urine samples from 455 subjects--150 confirmed visceral leishmaniasis cases, 160 endemic controls, 100 non-endemic controls, and 45 other febrile...

HIV/AIDS-associated visceral leishmaniasis may display the characteristics of an aggressive disease or without specific symptoms at all, thus making diagnosis difficult. The present study describes the results of diagnostic tests applied to a series of suspected VL cases in HIV-infected/AIDS patients admitted in referral hospitals in Pernambuco, Brazil. From a total of 14 eligible patients with...

A 5-month old puppy with muco-cutaneous lesions in the chin, around lips and eyes was examined physically and microscopically for leishmaniasis. Muco-cutaneous lesions containing a large number of amastigotes of Leishmania spp. were observed. Amastigotes were also detected in liver and spleen of the puppy. The animal was positive with Dipstick rK39 kit and high level of anti-Leishmania antibodi...

A 56-year-old man presented with fevers up to 40°C and acute pain in the left upper quadrant. Full blood count was normal and biochemical tests revealed increased serum globulin. Abdominal ultrasound revealed hepatomegaly and splenomegaly with multiple enlarged lymph nodes in the neck, axilla, and inguinal regions. The bone marrow smear was negative. Splenectomy was performed and the pathology ...

Clinically visceral leishmaniasis is suspected in only a fraction of infected persons, as the majority of these may not have clinical manifestations and remain asymptomatic. There is scanty information on diagnosing latent infections and predicting disease in asymptomatic persons. We therefore carried out a study on asymptomatic contacts of patients with visceral leishmaniasis and post-kala-aza...

a 5-month old puppy with muco-cutaneous lesions in the chin, around lips and eyes was exam­ined physically and microscopically for leishmaniasis. muco-cutaneous lesions containing a large num­ber of amastigotes of leishmania spp. were observed . amastigotes were also detected in liver and spleen of the puppy. the animal was positive with dipstick rk39 kit and high level of anti- leishmania anti...

BACKGROUND For effective control of visceral leishmaniasis (VL) in East Africa, new rapid diagnostic tests are required to replace current tests with low sensitivity. The aim of this study is to improve diagnosis of VL in East Africa by testing a new antigen from an autochthonous L. donovani strain in Sudan. METHODOLOGY AND PRINCIPLE FINDINGS We cloned, expressed and purified a novel recombin...

Objectives: A rapid immunochromatographic dipstick test (ICT) has become available for the qualitative detection of anti-Leishmania antibody using recombinant rK39 antigen. This study was carried out at the department of Microbiology of Rajshahi Medical College, Bangladesh, in order to evaluate the diagnostic potential of immunochromatographic dipstick test. Methodology: A total of one hundred ...