Prevalence of cutaneous leishmaniasis in humans and dogs in Pakistan

The study was undertaken from may 2007 to june 2008 to determine the prevalence of cutaneous leishmaniasis in humans and dogs in four regions of pakistan. humans and dogs were screened for the disease and potential positive cases were identified on the basis of skin lesions. samples of blood and skin lesions were collected for thin smear and polymerase chain reaction (pcr) examination. pcr analyses of clinical samples were found to be positive for a single schizodeme of leishmania tropica. it was also revealed that pcr could detect dna from less than a single parasite and can be effectively used in epidemiological surveys. both dry and muco-purulent cutaneous forms of the disease were found to be endemic in the north,south and west of pakistan. the east and south-eastern regions were non endemic. no case of visceral form of disease was encountered during the period of study from any part of the country. in northern pakistan the disease was most prevalent in humans in november 2007 (661) and least prevalent during february 2008 (292) while in dogs the highest prevalence was during november 2007 (24%) and lowest prevalence in january 2008 (5%). in southern pakistan the highest human disease prevalence was in april 2008 (518 cases) and lowest disease detections in june 2007 with 308 cases. in dogs,the highest number of cases were in december 2007 (25% cases) and least number during july 2007 (9% cases). in western pakistan the human disease prevalence was highest in october 2007 (281 cases) and lowest during feb.2008 (66 cases) while in dogs most cases were detected in nov. 2007 (21% cases) and the number of cases was lowest in feb. 2008 (8%). copyright 2011 zoological society of pakistan.