molecular evaluation of leishmania species in negative ulcer smears from patients suspected of having cutaneous leishmaniasis referred to the health center of aq qala city during 2019-2020

Background: cutaneous leishmaniasis (cl) is a prevalent infectious zoonotic disease between humans and animals. golestan province is one of the important centers of cl in iran. the current method for detecting leishmania parasites in patients is giemsa-stained direct smear from skin ulcers; however, pcr is a strongly recommended method for epidemiological studies. this study aimed to investigate leishmania species in negative ulcer smears from patients suspected of having cl referred to aq qala health center using the multiplex nested pcr method. methods: this study was performed on 72 negative ulcer smears from patients suspected of having cl referred to aq qala health center, golestan province, northeastern iran, from august 2019 to april 2020, using the multiplex nested pcr method to detect leishmania major and leishmania tropica species. results: out of 72 samples, 4 (5.55%) samples were positive by multiplex nested pcr. moreover, all positive samples are related to leishmania major species. conclusion: the multiplex nested pcr method is strongly recommended for detecting leishmania species in negative ulcer smears from patients suspected of having cl.