Visceral Leishmaniasis in a 3-Year-Old Girl with Recurrent Fever Episodes of Unknown Cause

Britt Nakstad

doi:10.19080/jojcs.2021.12.555841

Visceral leishmaniasis (Kala-azar) in Qom Province, Iran: Report of two cases

F1000Research ◽

10.12688/f1000research.15805.1 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 7 ◽

pp. 1371

Author(s):

Leyli Zanjirani Farahani ◽

Abedin Saghafipour ◽

Mehdi Mohebali ◽

Behnaz Akhoundi ◽

Hedayatollah Raufi

Keyword(s):

Visceral Leishmaniasis ◽

Rural Areas ◽

Control Strategies ◽

Sand Fly ◽

Recurrent Fever ◽

Kala Azar ◽

Periodic Monitoring ◽

History Of ◽

The Common

Visceral leishmaniasis (VL) is a fatal parasitic zoonotic worldwide disease, which transmits to humans by the infected Phlebotomine sand fly bite. The common form of VL in Iran is the Mediterranean type with the causative agent of Leishmania infantum, whose main reservoirs are stray and domesticated dogs. The disease has several endemic foci in Iran, mostly seen among children under the age of 10, living in rural areas and nomadic tribes. The first cases of Kala-Azar in Qom province, central Iran, were reported in the year 2001, from the villages of Ghahan district. After conducting VL control strategies in the area, no new cases of the disease had been reported until recently. The cases described here are two 2-year-old girls, living in the urban parts of Qom province, one of whom did not have a history of traveling to known endemic areas of the disease. The patients were admitted to hospital in 2016-2017, complaining from recurrent fever with unrecognized reason, associated with decreased appetite and weight loss. Disease follow-up demonstrated anemia and splenomegaly, which led to diagnosis of VL, and both patients are now fully recovered. VL was presumed to be controlled in Qom province but the present cases indicate that possible VL existence remains in the region. Therefore, urgent studies and periodic monitoring are needed to identify potential reservoirs of VL in the area.

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Visceral leishmaniasis (Kala-azar) in Qom Province, Iran: Report of two cases

F1000Research ◽

10.12688/f1000research.15805.3 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 7 ◽

pp. 1371 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Leyli Zanjirani Farahani ◽

Abedin Saghafipour ◽

Mehdi Mohebali ◽

Behnaz Akhoundi ◽

Hedayatollah Raufi

Keyword(s):

Visceral Leishmaniasis ◽

Rural Areas ◽

Control Strategies ◽

Sand Fly ◽

Recurrent Fever ◽

Kala Azar ◽

Periodic Monitoring ◽

History Of ◽

The Common

Visceral leishmaniasis (VL) is a fatal parasitic zoonotic worldwide disease, which transmits to humans by the infected Phlebotomine sand fly bite. The common form of VL in Iran is the Mediterranean type with the causative agent of Leishmania infantum, whose main reservoirs are stray and domesticated dogs. The disease has several endemic foci in Iran, mostly seen among children under the age of 10, living in rural areas and nomadic tribes. The first cases of Kala-Azar in Qom province, central Iran, were reported in the year 2001, from the villages of Ghahan district. After conducting VL control strategies in the area, no new cases of the disease had been reported until recently. The cases described here are two 2-year-old girls, living in the urban parts of Qom province, one of whom did not have a history of traveling to known endemic areas of the disease. The patients were admitted to hospital in 2016-2017, complaining from recurrent fever with unrecognized reason, associated with decreased appetite and weight loss. Disease follow-up demonstrated anemia and splenomegaly, which led to diagnosis of VL, and both patients are now fully recovered. VL was presumed to be controlled in Qom province but the present cases indicate that possible VL existence remains in the region. Therefore, urgent studies and periodic monitoring are needed to identify potential reservoirs of VL in the area.

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Visceral leishmaniasis (Kala-azar) in Qom Province, Iran: Report of two cases

F1000Research ◽

10.12688/f1000research.15805.2 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 7 ◽

pp. 1371

Author(s):

Leyli Zanjirani Farahani ◽

Abedin Saghafipour ◽

Mehdi Mohebali ◽

Behnaz Akhoundi ◽

Hedayatollah Raufi

Keyword(s):

Visceral Leishmaniasis ◽

Rural Areas ◽

Control Strategies ◽

Sand Fly ◽

Recurrent Fever ◽

Kala Azar ◽

Periodic Monitoring ◽

History Of ◽

The Common

Visceral leishmaniasis (VL) is a fatal parasitic zoonotic worldwide disease, which transmits to humans by the infected Phlebotomine sand fly bite. The common form of VL in Iran is the Mediterranean type with the causative agent of Leishmania infantum, whose main reservoirs are stray and domesticated dogs. The disease has several endemic foci in Iran, mostly seen among children under the age of 10, living in rural areas and nomadic tribes. The first cases of Kala-Azar in Qom province, central Iran, were reported in the year 2001, from the villages of Ghahan district. After conducting VL control strategies in the area, no new cases of the disease had been reported until recently. The cases described here are two 2-year-old girls, living in the urban parts of Qom province, one of whom did not have a history of traveling to known endemic areas of the disease. The patients were admitted to hospital in 2016-2017, complaining from recurrent fever with unrecognized reason, associated with decreased appetite and weight loss. Disease follow-up demonstrated anemia and splenomegaly, which led to diagnosis of VL, and both patients are now fully recovered. VL was presumed to be controlled in Qom province but the present cases indicate that possible VL existence remains in the region. Therefore, urgent studies and periodic monitoring are needed to identify potential reservoirs of VL in the area.

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Screening North American Plants In Vitro Against Leishmania Donovani, The Causative Agent For Visceral Leishmaniasis

Planta Medica ◽

10.1055/s-0036-1578666 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 82 (05) ◽

Author(s):

SK Jain ◽

MR Jacob ◽

B Tekwani

Keyword(s):

Visceral Leishmaniasis ◽

Causative Agent ◽

North American ◽

Leishmania Donovani

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Patients with fever of unknown origin (FUO): diagnosis by nuclear medicine imaging

Nuklearmedizin ◽

10.1055/s-0038-1623872 ◽

2001 ◽

Vol 40 (03) ◽

pp. 59-70 ◽

Cited By ~ 13

Author(s):

W. Becker ◽

J. Meiler

Keyword(s):

Nuclear Medicine ◽

Fever Of Unknown Origin ◽

Tumor Imaging ◽

White Blood Cells ◽

Unknown Origin ◽

Final Diagnosis ◽

Recurrent Fever ◽

Nuclear Medicine Imaging

SummaryFever of unknown origin (FUO) in immunocompetent and non neutropenic patients is defined as recurrent fever of 38,3° C or greater, lasting 2-3 weeks or longer, and undiagnosed after 1 week of appropriate evaluation. The underlying diseases of FUO are numerous and infection accounts for only 20-40% of them. The majority of FUO-patients have autoimmunity and collagen vascular disease and neoplasm, which are responsible for about 50-60% of all cases. In this respect FOU in its classical definition is clearly separated from postoperative and neutropenic fever where inflammation and infection are more common. Although methods that use in-vitro or in-vivo labeled white blood cells (WBCs) have a high diagnostic accuracy in the detection and exclusion of granulocytic pathology, they are only of limited value in FUO-patients in establishing the final diagnosis due to the low prevalence of purulent processes in this collective. WBCs are more suited in evaluation of the focus in occult sepsis. Ga-67 citrate is the only commercially available gamma emitter which images acute, chronic, granulomatous and autoimmune inflammation and also various malignant diseases. Therefore Ga-67 citrate is currently considered to be the tracer of choice in the diagnostic work-up of FUO. The number of Ga-67-scans contributing to the final diagnosis was found to be higher outside Germany than it has been reported for labeled WBCs. F-l 8-2’-deoxy-2-fluoro-D-glucose (FDG) has been used extensively for tumor imaging with PET. Inflammatory processes accumulate the tracer by similar mechanisms. First results of FDG imaging demonstrated, that FDG may be superior to other nuclear medicine imaging modalities which may be explained by the preferable tracer kinetics of the small F-l 8-FDG molecule and by a better spatial resolution of coincidence imaging in comparison to a conventional gamma camera.

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