Rapid Assessment of Patterns of Leishmania donovani Infection in Eastern Sudan: Immune Surveillance and Application of Geographic Information System - Abstract
Visceral Leishmaniasis (VL) is a fatal disease that predominantly affects children in Sudan. Recent epidemics demonstrated that the health system is neither adequate nor prepared. Control of visceral Leishmaniasis is hampered by the elusive nature of the vector and failure to identify a reservoir host. Case detection and treatment with antimonial drugs contribute to disease control.
A rapid epidemiological survey (RES) and spatial analyses were conducted to map VL clinical phenotypes, identify population at risk of VL and molecularly characterize L. donovani isolates.
Eight villages were randomly selected for total population census demographic and clinical data collection, simple immunological techniques (leishmanin skin test, DAT) and parasite culture and molecular characterization of the Leishmania isolates.
The use of clinical interview combined with simple immunological tests can give valuable information about the pattern of L. donovani infection and predict future prevalence in a short time. Leishmanin non-reactive individuals are a useful piece of data to plan for future vaccine efficacy studies. RES can provide
useful information in a short time (~10-14 days) about disease phenotypes, population at risk and target population for future vaccination campaigns. The data could be depicted in map formats to give an enhanced visual impact and can act as a nidus for the development of a Pan-Sudan/Pan-Africa VL map.