title: Childhood leishmaniasis: report of 106 cases.
abstract: In Tunisia there are three epidemic clinical forms of cutaneous leishmaniasis. They are associated with three different species of Leishmania and are observed in different geographical areas. We undertook a single-center retrospective analysis of childhood leishmaniasis in order to describe epidemio-clinical profile, therapeutic characteristics and clinical outcomes of affected patients. The study comprises 166 children with 132 lesions of cutaneous leishmaniasis. The subjects ages range from 5 months to 15 years (average 8.75 years). The F:M sex ratio is 1.3. Leishmaniasis affects grown-up children in 74.5 percent of the cases. All of our patients live in an endemic area. The face is affected in 76.5 percent of cases. Mucosal leishmaniasis is present in 9 children (6.8 %). Clinical diagnosis confirmed by the parasitologic smear or histopathological examination in 89.6 percent of the cases. Treatment with intralesional meglumine antimoniate is done for 67 patients; the treatment regimen is one local injection (1 ml/cm(2)) per week until recovery. Systemic meglumine antimoniate is the initial therapy for 25 patients. Meglumine antimoniate treatment is well tolerated with no side-effects. All leishmaniasis lesions heal within an average period of 2.18 months. Childhood cutaneous leishmaniais is common in Tunisia. It has the characteristics of sporadic leishmaniasis. Mucosal leishmaniasis has a favorable outcome with no destruction, nor scaring deformity. The standard treatment remains intralesional meglumine antimoniate.
authors.affiliation: Dermatology Department, Charles Nicolle Hospital, Tunis, Tunisia. monia.kharfi@rns.tn
authors.forename: Monia
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Kharfi
authors.forename: Rym
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Benmously
authors.forename: Nadia
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: El Fekih
authors.forename: Meriem
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Daoud
authors.forename: Zohra
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Fitouri
authors.forename: Inçaf
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Mokhtar
authors.forename: Saïda
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Ben Becher
authors.forename: Mohamed Ridha
authors.initials: MR
authors.lastname: Kamoun
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D016773:Leishmaniasis, Cutaneous / Q000453:epidemiology; D008297:Male; D012189:Retrospective Studies