PCR Diagnosis of Leishmaniasis in Israel and the West Bank

This work has been done within a trilateralGerman-Israeli-Palestinian Research project sponsored by the"Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft" DFG. Leishmaniasis is a vectorborne disease caused by a unicellular parasite, prevalent in thetropics and subtropics. There are serious and less serious diseaseforms ranging from life threatening visceral leishmaniasis to selflimited cutaneous leishmaniasis. In Israel and the West Bank newlyemerging foci were reported, and there was great need to betterunderstand the epidemiology of the disease and the causativespecies involved. The project involved interdisciplinarycooperation between immunologists, entomologists, veterinarians,and medical doctors. The presented work is a contribution to theproject with focus on diagnostic methods. In order to understandthe epidemiology of the disease in the region it was essential tobe able to identify the species of Leishmania, as well as to ensurediagnosis at a highly sensitive level. Diagnostic methods wereemployed in patients as well as in different animals species ascanids and rodents involved in the transmission cycle ofLeishmaniasis.