OBJECTIVE

To perform an epidemiological investigation on a case with visceral leishmaniasis in Zhengzhou City, Henan Province, and to identify the source of infection, so as to illustrate the transmission chain and assess the risk of local leishmaniasis transmission.

METHODS

The medical data were collected from a case with visceral leishmaniasis in Zhengzhou City, and the patient's bone marrow smears were detected by microscopy. Serum anti- antibody test and PCR assay were performed among high-risk residents and all dogs in the village where the patient lived. Sandflies were captured using light traps and artificial traps, and the captured female was subjected to PCR assay. The internal transcribed spacer 1 () gene was amplified with a nested PCR assay using the genomic DNA extracted from visceral leishmaniasis patients, positive dogs and sandflies, and the sequences were aligned with those download from NCBI. In addition, a phylogenetic tree was created based on the gene.

RESULTS

The visceral leishmaniasis patient had recurrent irregular fever, reduced complete blood counts, low hemoglobin, and a large number of amastigotes in bone marrow smears, and was therefore diagnosed as visceral leishmaniasis. Both rk39 rapid diagnostic test and PCR assay tested negative among 324 residents living neighboring the patient's residence, while 21.39% (43/201) dogs were positive for rk39 rapid diagnostic test and 13.93% (28/201) positive for PCR assay. There were 17 female tested positive for (0.82%) by PCR assay, and the gene sequences from visceral leishmaniasis patients, positive dogs and sandflies shared a 100% homology with . The species was therefore characterized as .

CONCLUSIONS

infection occurs in visceral leishmaniasis patients, dogs and sandflies in Zhengzhou City, indicating a complete transmission chain and a high transmission risk of visceral leishmaniasis by Intensified control measures are required to prevent local transmission of leishmaniasis in Zhengzhou City.