Will the introduction of Leishmania tropica MON-58, in the island of Crete, lead to the settlement and spread of this rare zymodeme?
The rare zymodeme, Leishmania tropica MON-58, was isolated from a young Afghan refugee with a facial cutaneous lesion who had come to live in Crete early 2008. The same zymodeme variant was isolated from a local dog that had never travelled outside the island, with symptoms of visceral leishmaniasis, which stayed in the area where the patient worked during the summer months. This is the first record of L. tropica in a host, other than human, in Greece and another example of introduction of a vector borne pathogen in a focus where local vector/s can sustain it, with the risk of initiation of new transmission cycle/s.
Laboratory of Clinical Bacteriology, Parasitology, Zoonoses and Geographical Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, University of Crete, Crete, Greece. Electronic address: pntais@yahoo.com.
Pantelis
P
Ntais
Laboratory of Clinical Bacteriology, Parasitology, Zoonoses and Geographical Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, University of Crete, Crete, Greece; Veterinary Services of Cyprus, Nicosia, Cyprus. Electronic address: vchristod@edu.med.uoc.gr.
Vasiliki
V
Christodoulou
Laboratory of Clinical Bacteriology, Parasitology, Zoonoses and Geographical Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, University of Crete, Crete, Greece. Electronic address: nitsirigo@hotmail.com.
Nikolaos
N
Tsirigotakis
Laboratory of Clinical Bacteriology, Parasitology, Zoonoses and Geographical Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, University of Crete, Crete, Greece. Electronic address: m.dokianakis@med.uoc.gr.
Emmanouil
E
Dokianakis
Université Montpellier 1, Centre National de référence des leishmanioses, UMR MIVEGEC (CNRS 5290, IRD 224, UM1, UM2), Département de Parasitologie-Mycologie (Professeur Patrick Bastien), CHRU de Montpellier, 39 avenue Charles Flahault, 34295 Montpellier Cedex 5, France. Electronic address: parasito@univ-montp1.fr.
Jean-Pierre
JP
Dedet
Université Montpellier 1, Centre National de référence des leishmanioses, UMR MIVEGEC (CNRS 5290, IRD 224, UM1, UM2), Département de Parasitologie-Mycologie (Professeur Patrick Bastien), CHRU de Montpellier, 39 avenue Charles Flahault, 34295 Montpellier Cedex 5, France. Electronic address: f-pratlong@chu-montpellier.fr.
Francine
F
Pratlong
Laboratory of Clinical Bacteriology, Parasitology, Zoonoses and Geographical Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, University of Crete, Crete, Greece. Electronic address: antoniou@med.uoc.gr.
Maria
M
Antoniou
D000293:Adolescent; D000818:Animals; D004283:Dog Diseases / Q000469:parasitology* / Q000635:transmission*; D004285:Dogs; D005260:Female; D005838:Genotype; D006115:Greece; D006801:Humans; D007895:Leishmania tropica / Q000145:classification / Q000235:genetics / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D016773:Leishmaniasis, Cutaneous / Q000469:parasitology / Q000635:transmission* / Q000662:veterinary*; D008297:Male; D012150:Polymorphism, Restriction Fragment Length
Canine leishmaniasis; Crete; Cutaneous leishmaniasis; Greece; Leishmania tropica; MON-58