engleski

Occurence of visceral and cutaneous leishmaniasis in Croatia

Objective: To show epidemiological characteristics and clinical manifestations of visceral and cutaneous leishmaniasis in Croatia. Methods: Analysis of data on reported visceral and cutaneous leishmaniasis cases and description of the most common clinical manifestations of the disease based on meta-analysis of collected data. Results: A total of 124 cases of visceral and cutaneous leishmaniasis were reported from 1954 till the end of 2006. During the 1996 - 2006 period, 33 people got infected: 22 with visceral and 11 with cutaneous form of the disease. Age specific morbidity is highest in the 0-4 age group (0.29 %ooo). Southern Croatia is an endemic area for visceral and cutaneous leishmaniasis, yet the disease has also been recorded in other parts of the country. Clinical picture of visceral leishmaniasis was confirmed by detection of amastigotes in bone- marrow aspirate (22 ; 68.8%), liver (1 ; 3.1%), and by serology – indirect immunofluorescent assays (29 ; 90.6%) in 32 hospital-treated patients. None of the infected was HIV positive. The diagnosis of cutaneous leismaniasis is based on clinical picture, epidemiological data, light microscopic histology and positive Montenegro (leishmanin) test. Conclusion: It is estimated that there have been significant changes in epidemiological characteristics of natural foci of leishmaniasis in Croatia, with an increase in the number of the diseased like in other Mediterranean countries, which suggests that we are dealing with a pattern common to the whole geographic area and puts additional stress on the need for control and increasing awareness of this parasitosis.

Visceral and cutaneous leishmaniasis; epidemiology; clinical manifestations; Croatia

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