Asymptomatic carriage of Leishmania in family members of patients with visceral leishmaniasis in Central Tunisia.

Introduction: In Tunisia, asymptomatic carriage of Leishmania is poorly documented.

Objective: The aim of the present study was to estimate the frequency of asymptomatic infection among the family members of patients with patent visceral leishmaniasis by using the Western blotting kit based on 14 and 16kDa bands.

Material And Methods: We tested 94 sera collected from 24 patients with patent visceral leishmaniasis and 70 from their families' members.

Results: The rate of seropositivity was 100% in the group of patients and 54.3% in the group of families' members. The analysis of the Western blotting patterns showed that the 33kDa, 24kDa and to a lesser extent the 22kDa band were very indicative of patent visceral leishmaniasis in contrast to asymptomatic infection where these bands were very rarely detected.

Conclusion: The results reported herein showed the high frequency of asymptomatic carriers of Leishmania among the families' members of visceral leishmaniasis cases and the usefulness of the Western blotting as a screening technique and in distinguishing between patent visceral leishmaniasis and the asymptomatic carriage of Leishmania.