Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2002 Nov 20;1(1):7.
doi: 10.1186/1475-9292-1-7.

Leishmania species and zymodemes isolated from endemic areas of cutaneous leishmaniasis in Jordan

Laila Nimri  1 , Radwan Soubani, Marina Gramiccia
Affiliations

Leishmania species and zymodemes isolated from endemic areas of cutaneous leishmaniasis in Jordan

Laila Nimri et al. Kinetoplastid Biol Dis. .

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Cutaneous leishmaniasis (CL) is endemic in the Middle Eastern countries. New cases are emerging in areas previously free of the disease. In Jordan, the diagnosis of cases during the 1960s and 1970s was mainly reported in military hospitals in Amman. Endemicity of the disease was ascertained after reporting a total of 524 cases during 1973-1978. RESULTS: Leishmania major and Leishmania tropica were isolated from seventy-six autochthonous and imported cases of CL, during eight-year period. The highest infection rates recorded were in the central part of Jordan (60.5%), in males (72.4%) and in the age group 21-30 years (30.5%). Lesions were on the exposed sites of the body, mainly on the face (40%). Both Leishmania spp. were isolated from all parts of the country, although L. major was the predominant species (75% of cases) in all areas except in the north part of Jordan. Isoenzyme characterization of the isolates identified four previously undescribed zymodemes (Z). Four Leishmania major zymodemes were found, one of which was a new zymodeme (ZMON-103 variant in GLUD220); L. major ZMON-103 was the most common zymodeme. Four Leishmania tropica zymodemes were identified, of which three were previously unreported. Of these, ZMON-54 var PGD96-97 was isolated from autochthonous cases, whereas ZMON-59 var MDH100 and ZMON-75 var FH110 were obtained from both autochthonous and imported cases, or from an imported CL case, respectively. CONCLUSION: The findings of this study indicate the emergence of the CL disease in new areas. New foci are reported, where the sporadic nature of the cases indicates recent spread of the disease to these areas and the urge for the implementation of control measures.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Distribution of cutaneous leishmaniasis cases in Jordan during 1992–2000.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Phenogram built on 15 enzymatic loci from 3 WHO Leishmania reference strains and 14 Leishmania zymodemes from Middle East and Central Asia (similarity Jaccard index (Sj); UPGMA method). Three groups are identified: Leishmania infantum (A, triangle), L. tropica (B, circles) and L. major (C, squares).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Al-Zahrani MA, Peters W, Evans DA, Smith V, Ching Chin I. Leishmania infecting man and wild animals in Saudi Arabia. 6. Cutaneous leishmaniasis of man in the south west. Trans Roy Soc Trop Med Hyg. 1989;83:621–628. - PubMed
    1. Khoury S, Saliba EK, Oumeish OY, Tawfig MR. Epidemiology of cutaneous leishmaniasis in Jordan 1983–1992. Inter J Dermatol. 1996;35:566–559. - PubMed
    1. Schlein Y, Warburg A, Schnur LF, Le Blancq SM, Gunders AE. Leishmaniasis in Israel: reservoir hosts, sandfly vectors and leishmanial strains in the Negev, Central Arava and along the Dead Sea. Trans Roy Soc Trop Med Hyg. 1984;78:480–484. - PubMed
    1. Tayeh A, Jalouk L, Cairncross S. Twenty years of cutaneous leishmaniasis in Aleppo, Syria. Trans Roy Soc Trop Med Hyg. 1997;91:657–659. - PubMed
    1. Chance ML, Walton BC. Biochemical characterization of Leishmania . Geneva: UNDP/World Bank/WHO. 1982. pp. 275–280.

LinkOut - more resources