American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene (2009) 81, 213-218

Magdi G. Shehata, Abdallah M. Samy, Said A. Doha, Adel R. Fahmy, Rania M. Kaldas, Barry D. Furman and Jeffrey T. Villinski (2009)
First report of Leishmania tropica from a classical focus of L. major in North-Sinai, Egypt
American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene 81 (2), 213-218
Abstract: Cutaneous leishmaniasis (CL) is prevalent in the Egyptian Sinai Peninsula and previous research has consistently documented the etiologic agent to be Leishmania major. We report the first isolation of Leishmania tropica from human cases of CL in a Northern Sinai community bordering Palestine. Parasite culturing, real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR), gene sequencing, and restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) analyses indicate CL cases in this community were caused by either L. major or L. tropica (three cases each). Two wild-caught rodents (Gerbillus pyramidum floweri) were infected with L. tropica. Phlebotomus papatasi sand flies were found harboring L. major, however only non-infected individuals of Phlebotomus sergenti, a vector for L. tropica, were caught. Patients with L. tropica had not traveled from the region in over a year, suggesting these cases are autochthonous. This scenario is consistent with an incursion of L. tropica from bordering countries and raises concerns about expansion of this parasite further into Egypt.
(The abstract has been supplied by the author or ISPI and is excluded from the Creative Commons licence.)
Full text of article
Database assignments for author(s): Abdallah M. Samy

Research topic(s) for pests/diseases/weeds:
general biology - morphology - evolution

---

Pest and/or beneficial records:

Beneficial	Pest/Disease/Weed	Crop/Product	Country	Quarant.
	Phlebotomus papatasi		Egypt
	Phlebotomus sergenti		Egypt