The diagnosis of visceral leishmaniasis involves isolation of the parasites in culture or invasive and risky techniques including demonstration of parasite in stained preparations of relevant tissues such as spleen, bone marrow or lymph node by light microscopic examination remains a gold standard. Serological tests using rK39 in ELISA or rapid immunochromatographic tests, direct agglutination ...

Several serology-based immunoassays are used to diagnose visceral leishmaniasis (VL), a chronic protozoan parasitic disease caused by the Leishmania donovani complex. These tests are primarily designed to diagnose the most severe clinical form of VL, known as kala-azar. However, leishmanial infection is frequently asymptomatic and may manifest only as a positive serologic response or positive l...

INTRODUCTION The control of reservoirs for Leishmania infantum -induced zoonotic visceral leishmaniasis requires the identification of dogs posing a population risk. Here, we assessed the performance of several assays to identify Lutzomyia longipalpis infectious dogs. METHODS We evaluated 99 dogs that were positive for visceral leishmaniasis based on parasite identification. Serological analy...

BACKGROUND Despite high prevalence of visceral leishmaniasis and malaria in the study area, their coinfection remains unknown. Therefore, this study was aimed to document VL-malaria coinfections and their associated factors. METHODS A cross-sectional study was conducted among clinical suspected VL patients attending Metema hospital, Northwest Ethiopia, from January 2014 to June 2014. Blood sa...

Identification of post-kala-azar dermal leishmaniasis (PKDL) is important due to the long and toxic treatment and the fact that PKDL patients may serve as a reservoir for visceral leishmaniasis (VL). We summarized the published literature about the accuracy of diagnostic tests for PKDL. We searched Medline for eligible studies investigating the diagnostic accuracy of any test for PKDL. Study qu...

BACKGROUND Poor access to diagnosis stymies control of visceral leishmaniasis (VL). Antibody-detecting rapid diagnostic tests (RDTs) can be performed in peripheral health settings. However, there are many brands available and published reports of variable accuracy. METHODS Commercial VL RDTs containing bound rK39 or rKE16 antigen were evaluated using archived human sera from confirmed VL case...

Visceral leishmaniasis (VL) is a form of leishmaniasis, which is caused by infection with the protozoan parasite Leishmania, and is often fatal unless it is treated. Rapid and accurate diagnosis of VL is important for effective treatment. Here we report the cloning of previously undescribed tandem repeat (TR) proteins of Leishmania infantum and an evaluation of VL patient antibody responses to ...