Leishmania typing in Lattakia, a coastal city in Syria

Leishmaniasis is a worldwide disease that manifests in different clinical forms caused by obligate intracellular protozoan parasites of the genus Leishmania. The parasite transmission occurs by the bite of sandflies and affects many countries across the world. Its transmission cycle is associated with the presence of bad conditions and crisis. Syria is considered an endemic area and has a long history of cutaneous and visceral leishmaniasis. The crisis that gripped the country changed the leishmaniasis situation drastically and resulted in a redistribution of cases around the country, especially after the massive displacement toward safe cities such as Lattakia, which is known for registering few CL cases every year. In this study, we aimed to shed light on the real number of cases that originated in Latakia Province. Moreover, we determined the species responsible for CL lesions using polymerase chain reaction-restriction fragment DNA length polymorphism (PCR-RFLP). Our results show that just about less than one-third of cutaneous leishmaniasis cases diagnosed in Lattakia were originally acquired from the province, while the rest of the cases were acquired from other endemic areas. In addition, we found that 98.2% of all the diagnosed cases were caused by L. tropica, while 1.8% were caused by L. major.