[Particular profile of the zymodemes of Leishmania infantum causing visceral leishmaniasis in Tunisia].
The isoenzymatic typing of 16 stocks of Leishmania, isolated from Tunisian visceral leishmaniasis (VL) cases, revealed that all strains belonged to Leishmania (L.) infantum species. Although zymodeme MON-1 was predictably the most frequent (9 cases), it came as a surprise that L. infantum MON-24 was responsible of about third of cases. This latter zymodeme, while previously reported in Tunisia, Algeria and Spain, was assumed to be a dermotropic and the few cases of VL that it caused occurred always in HIV infected patients. L. infantum MON-80, occasionally reported during both cutaneous and VL of immunocompetent infants was identified in 2 patients. This report confirms that in addition to the more common L. infantum MON-1, zymodeme MON-24 has a substantial role in generating VL in immunocompetent infants in Tunisia.
Aoun
K
K
Laboratoire de parasitologie, Institut Pasteur de Tunis, 13 place Pasteur, BP 74, 1002 Tunis, Tunisie. Karim.Aoun@fmt.mu.tn
Bouratbine
A
A
Harrat
Z
Z
Belkaïd
M
M
Bel Hadj Ali
S
S
D000818:Animals; D006801:Humans; D007527:Isoenzymes / Q000032:analysis; D018314:Leishmania infantum / Q000145:classification* / Q000201:enzymology*; D007898:Leishmaniasis, Visceral / Q000469:parasitology*; D014416:Tunisia
D007527:Isoenzymes