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Memórias do Instituto Oswaldo Cruz
Fundação Oswaldo Cruz, Fiocruz
ISSN: 1678-8060 EISSN: 1678-8060
Vol. 97, No. 8, 2002, pp. 1079-1083
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Bioline Code: oc02237
Full paper language: English
Document type: Research Article
Document available free of charge
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Memórias do Instituto Oswaldo Cruz, Vol. 97, No. 8, 2002, pp. 1079-1083
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Epidemiological and Immunological Aspects of Human Visceral Leishmaniasis on Margarita Island, Venezuela
Olga Zerpa; Marian Ulrich; Margarita Benitez; Concepci≤n Ávila; Vestalia Rodríguez; Marta Centeno; Doris Belizario; Steven G Reed & Jacinto Convit
Abstract
Sixty-five patients
were diagnosed with visceral leishmaniasis (VL) on Margarita Island in the decade
from 1990 to1999; 86.2% were £ 3 years old. All were leishmanin-negative
at diagnosis. Evaluation of 23 cured patients in 1999 revealed that 22/23 had
converted to leishmanin-positive; five had persisting antibodies to rK39 antigen,
with no clinical evidence of disease. Leishmanin tests were positive in 20.2%
of 1,643 healthy individuals from 417 households in endemic areas. Of the positive
reactors, 39.8% were identified in 35 (8.4%) of the households, 15 of which had
an antecedent case of VL, a serologically positive dog or both. Weak serological
activity to rK39 antigen was detected in 3 of 488 human sera from the endemic
areas. The presence of micro-foci of intense peri-urban transmission and the apparent
absence of other Trypanosomatidae causing human disease offer a unique opportunity
for the study of reservoirs, alternative vectors and evaluation of control measures
on the Island.
Keywords
American visceral leishmaniasis - rK39 antigen - leishmanin reactions - control - Margarita Island - Venezuela
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