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Cross-sectional and Longitudinal Epidemiologic Surveys of Human and Canine Leishmania infantum Visceral Infections in an Endemic Rural Area of Southeast Brazil (Pancas, Espírito Santo)

In an endemic rural area of southeast Brazil, surveys confirmed that dogs serve as peridomestic reservoirs of Leishmania infantum. It is likely that the lack of efficient control is because presently used diagnostic tests miss positive dogs. Overall, 57% of the dogs had specific antibodies, but the canine infection was not uniformly fatal and many seropositive dogs remained asymptomatic or even spontaneously recovered. Furthermore, 42% of the human residents became leishmanin-positive reactors and 47% had positive serology at the initial survey, but our estimates also point at a high recovery rate among the infected population with time. The delayed-type hypersensitivity (DTH) reaction to Leishmania was a good indicator of resistance to infection in this particular epidemiologic situation. The lack of any significant differences in infection rates by gender or age indicate that all of the population was at an equal risk of infection and most people were infected in the peridomestic setting.

Received September 21, 2007. Accepted for publication September 19, 2008.

Acknowledgments: We thank Daniel Kiefer, Fundação Nacional da Saúde (Funasa, ES), for assistance in the field studies. The recombinant antigens K26 and K39 were kindly supplied by the Infectious Disease Research Institute (Seattle, WA).

Financial support: This work was supported in part by FIOCRUZ and the PRONEX 3/CNPq (National Council for Scientific and Technological Development of the Ministry of Science and Technology, Brazil). Gabriel Grimaldi Jr. and Elisa Cupolillo are CNPq Fellow researchers, Marcos V. Santos da Costa is a Master student in the Program in Parasite Biology/FIOCRUZ and sponsored by CNPq.

^* Address correspondence to Gabriel Grimaldi Jr., Laboratório de Pesquisa em Leishmaniose, Instituto Oswaldo Cruz, IOC/Fiocruz, Pavilhão Leônidas Deane, Sala 509, Av. Brasil 4365, 21045-090 Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brazil. E-mail: grimaldi{at}ioc.fiocruz.br

Authors’ addresses: Aloísio Falqueto, Adelson L. Ferreira, and Claudiney B. dos Santos, Unidade de Medicina Tropical, Universidade Federal do Espírito Santo, Av. Marechal Campos 1468, Vitória, ES 29040-090, Brazil, E-mails: falqueto{at}npd.ufes.br, adelsonlf{at}hotmail.com, and claudiney{at}ppgcf.ufes.br. Renato Porrozzi, Marcos V. Santos da Costa, Antonio Teva, Elisa Cupolillo, and Gabriel Grimaldi Jr, Laboratório de Pesquisas em Leishmaniose, Instituto Oswaldo Cruz, IOC/FIOCRUZ, Pavilhão Leônidas Deane–sala 509, Av. Brasil 4365, Rio de Janeiro, RJ 21045-900, Brazil, Tel: 55-21-3865-8203, Fax: 55-21-2209-4110, E-mails: mavicos2004{at}yahoo.com.br, porrozzi{at}ioc.fiocruz.br, teva{at}ioc.fiocruz.br, ecupoli{at}ioc.fiocruz.br, and grimaldi{at}ioc.fiocruz.br. Antonio Campos-Neto, The Forsyth Institute 140 The Fenway, Boston, MA 02115-3799, E-mail: Acampos{at}forsyth.org.