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The impact of refugees on leishmaniasis in Turkey: a new Syrian/Turkish Leishmania tropica population structure described by multilocus microsatellite typing (MLMT)

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Abstract

Turkey is one of the leishmaniasis endemic countries, and according to the recent reports, more than 45% of the cases were reported from the Southeastern part of Turkey. The disease is endemic in Syria with annually 25,000 cases, and it is emphasized by WHO that the actual number was estimated to be 2–5-fold higher than the reported numbers. Due to the civil war in Syria, more than seven million people were displaced and migrate to neighboring countries. The population structure of Leishmania tropica was investigated in the present study using clinical samples, which were obtained from Syrian patients residing in Turkey. Previously reported database was used to compare the results obtained in the present study. According to the multilocus microsatellite typing profiles, three populations (Şanlıurfa, Mediterranean, and Syrian/Turkish) were identified. Syrian/Turkish population, which is a new structure and identified for the first time in the present study, was comprised of clinical samples obtained from Syrian patients. The newly described population structure was homogeneous and solid comparing to previously identified population structures in Turkey. Further analyses revealed two sub-populations under the main Syrian/Turkish population structure. The findings of the present study revealed that the epidemiological status of leishmaniasis is more complicated than it is estimated. We believe that the data presented here will provide valuable information on the leishmaniasis epidemiology.

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Funding

This study is partially supported by The University of Health Sciences Research Grant (Project number: 2018/067).

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Medical Microbiology, Faculty of Medicine, University of Health Sciences, Istanbul, Turkey

    Mehmet Karakuş

  2. Department of Medical Microbiology, Bakırköy Dr. Sadi Konuk Training and Research Hospital, University of Health Sciences, Istanbul, Turkey

    Zeynep Çizmeci & Nuray Güleç

  3. Department of Infectious Diseases and Clinical Microbiology, Bakırköy Dr. Sadi Konuk Training and Research Hospital, University of Health Sciences, Istanbul, Turkey

    Şemsi Nur Karabela

  4. Department of Dermatology, Bakırköy Dr. Sadi Konuk Training and Research Hospital, University of Health Sciences, Istanbul, Turkey

    Bilgen Erdoğan

Authors
  1. Mehmet Karakuş
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  2. Zeynep Çizmeci
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  3. Şemsi Nur Karabela
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  4. Bilgen Erdoğan
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  5. Nuray Güleç
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Mehmet Karakuş.

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The local ethical committee of the Bakırköy Dr. Sadi Konuk Training and Research Hospital approved this work with protocol number 2018/314.

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The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

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ESM 1

Supplementary Figure 1: Melt analysis of ITS1 realtime PCR. Supplementary Table 1: Detailed list of the isolates, Giemsa-stained smears and MLMT data of L. tropica samples used in the present study. (XLSX 197 kb)

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Karakuş, M., Çizmeci, Z., Karabela, Ş.N. et al. The impact of refugees on leishmaniasis in Turkey: a new Syrian/Turkish Leishmania tropica population structure described by multilocus microsatellite typing (MLMT). Parasitol Res 118, 2679–2687 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00436-019-06392-w

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