Abstract
Human visceral leishmaniasis (HVL) is a neglected disease that occurs in 98 countries on five continents, and it is endemic in tropical and subtropical regions. In South America, the etiological agent of HVL is Leishmania infantum (syn. Leishmania chagasi), mainly transmitted through the bite of an infected sandfly female from the genus Lutzomyia. In American HVL endemic areas, the occurrence of asymptomatic infection is common, which contributes to the possibility of L. infantum transmission during a blood transfusion. To know the prevalence of L. infantum asymptomatic infection in blood donors from the microregion of Adamantina, we investigated 324 peripheral blood samples from donors through immunofluorescence (IFAT) and PCR–RFLP techniques. Seven blood samples (2.16%) tested positive for Leishmania by IFAT, and from those, six presented positive results by PCR (85.71%), which were later identified as L. infantum by RFLP. The presence of L. infantum in the peripheral blood of blood donors supported the hypothesis of transmission by blood transfusion and points to the need to include tests for visceral leishmaniasis in blood bank screening tests and pre-storage measures, especially in endemic areas to prevent the exponential increase of HVL by blood transfusion.
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Acknowledgements
The authors thank the Instituto Adolfo Lutz for the help in carrying out the immunofluorescence technique and Biomanguinhos for the donation of the immunofluorescence kit.
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This study was financed in part by the Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior – Brasil (CAPES) – Finance Code 001.
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EAdOL, LPAM, and RBS contributed to the conception and design of the study, prepared the material, and collected and analyzed the data. PF-H, FTJ, and MAS contributed to the preparation of the material and data analysis. The first draft of the manuscript was written by EAdOL and all the authors commented on the previous versions of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.
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This work was approved by the Research Ethics Committee of the Faculdade de Medicina de Marília – CAAE: 85265618.9.0000.5413.
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Lopes, E.A.d.O., Florencio-Henschel, P., Jordão, F.T. et al. Leishmania infantum (syn. Leishmania chagasi) detection in blood donors living in an endemic area. Parasitol Res 122, 671–674 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00436-022-07770-7
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00436-022-07770-7