Abstract
Visceral leishmaniasis (VL) is caused by various strains of Leishmania donovani, Leishmania infantum, and Leishmania chagasi with different geographical distribution. The aim of this study was to identify the strains of Leishmania that can cause VL in southern Iran. DNA of Leishmania were extracted from the slides of bone marrow aspirates (#42) and spleen punctures (#22), which were positive for leishman body from the patients who were referred to the hospitals affiliated with Shiraz University of Medical Sciences. Differences in Leishmania strains were determined by size difference of the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) amplification as visualized on agarose gel. PCR results and smears had 100% correlation. The dominant strain of Leishmania was L. infantum (63 out of the 64 cases), but one case of L. tropica was also detected. VL mostly involves children below 2 years of age in Iran, therefore infection with L. infantum was expected, but this study is the first report of VL that is caused by L. tropica in Iran.
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