Abstract

ROSAS FILHO, Mário de Souza  and  SILVEIRA, Fernando Tobias. Epidemiologic, clinical and immunologic on the human Leishmania (Leishmania) infantum chagasi infection in endemic area of visceral leishmaniasis in Pará. Rev. Para. Med. [online]. 2007, vol.21, n.3, pp.7-18. ISSN 0101-5907.

OBJECTIVES: the objectives of the study were i) to identify individuals with the symptomatic and/or asymptomatic infection due to Leishmania (L.) chagasi, ii) to study the two types of infection, both clinically and immunologically, and iii) to determine the prevalence of infection at the beginning of the study. METHODS: this was a transectional study of a cohort of 946 individuals of both sexes, from one year old and upwards, living in endemic area of American visceral leishmaniasis (AVL), municipality of Barcarena, Pará, Brazil. For the diagnosis of infection, there were used the delayed hypersensitivity skin reaction (LST) and the indirect fluorescent antibody test (IFAT). RESULTS: there were diagnosed 120 cases of infection, with the prevalence of 12.6%; 8 cases showed high sero-reactivity (1.280 to 10.240, IgG) to IFAT and no reaction to LST; being 4 cases of typical AVL and other 4 cases of sub-clinical oligosymptomatic infection. CONCLUSION: the two immunodiagnostic methods used, simultaneously, with the clinical examination enabled to identify 5 clinical-immunological profiles: Asymptomatic Infection (AI) 73.4%; Sub-clinical Resistant Infection (SRI) 15%; Sub-clinical Oligosymptomatic Infection (SOI) 3%; Symptomatic Infection (= AVL) 3% and, Indeterminate Initial Infection (III) 5%.

Keywords : Leishmania (L.) i; chagasi; human infection; clinical and epidemiological prevalence-study.

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