Akademik Veri Yönetim Sistemi
31st European Congress of Clinical Microbiology & Infectious Diseases, Basel, İsviçre, 9 - 12 Temmuz 2021, ss.4601
Background
Visceral leishmaniasis (VL) is the most severe form of the infection with an insidious course leading delay in diagnosis and
appropriate. Due to climate change, changes in epidemiology of leishmaniasis have been reported in European countries and
Turkey. The aim of this study is evaluation of the adult VL cases detected in Çukurova region at the southern part of Turkey.
Methods
A total of 26 adult VL cases treated at Infectious Diseases Department in Çukurova University, Faculty of Medicine,
between 2002-2019 were evaluated retrospectively.
Results
The patients comprised 22 males (84.6 %) and 4 females (15,4%) with mean age 40±15 (min17-max70). Of the patients,
80.8% were from Adana, which is a developed and 6th biggest city of Turkey, the rest of the patients were from Mersin
(%7.7), Hatay (%7.7), and Osmaniye (%3.8). Most of the patients (88.5%) were residents of rural area. Employment of the
patients is as follows: Farmer (23.1%), worker (19.2%), self-employed (15.4%), clerk (7.7%), student (3.8%), and
unemployed (26.9%). The distribution of the patients in years is given Figure 1. The number of cases detected monthly in a
year period is presented Table 2. Incubation period of the disease were between 4-365 days (mean 91±SD17). Clinical and
laboratory findings of our patients were presented in the table. Immunosuppression (steroid use) were detected in 20% of the
patients. Treatment (n=25) were constituted by liposomal amphotericin B (LAmB) in 20 patients (80%), by conventional
amphotericin B in one patient (4%) and by meglumin antimoniate in four patients (16%). All patients were treated
successfully except one who died due to sepsis and pulmonary thrombus on seventh day of the hospitalization.
Conclusions
VL is an important public health in urban area in Turkey. Due to climate change and economical issues, changes in
leishmaniasis epidemiology can be expected in the future. Clinicians, especially internal disease specialists must be aware
for VL in patients who have protracted fever, pancytopenia and hepatosplenomegaly. Detection of the amastigotes in bone
marrow is still major tool for diagnosis. Since cultivation of leishmaniasis is not widely available, newer diagnostic tests for
Leishmania spp. could be helpful for early diagnose.