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Leishmaniasis, seen in tropical and subtropical regions, is an infectious disease caused by the protozoan parasite Leishmania species. There are three main forms of leishmaniasis: cutaneous, mucocutaneous and visceral leishmaniasis. Cutaneous leishmaniasis (CL) has become an increasing problem as the number of travels around the world increases and people go to work in endemic areas. Turkey has received great numbers of immigrants in recent years, from its neighboring countries like Iraq, Islamic Republic of Iran, Afghanistan, Turkmenistan and the Syrian Arab Republic because of the political instabilities in these countries as well as the job opportunities caused by large-scale development projects undertaken by Turkey. In this report, imported CL cases detected in five truck drivers transporting from Hatay to Turkmenistan, Syria, Saudi Arabia, Iran and Georgia, Uzbekistan and Azarbaijan countries were presented. The patients admitted to Mustafa Kemal University, Faculty of Medicine Dermatology Policlinic, with wound complaints on their bodies were directed to the Department of Parasitology to obtain smear samples from their wounds. The age range of the patients were 38 to 43 years. Patients with wound trail for a period ranging from one month to one year had a number of lesions varying between 2-7 and in all cases, a smear preparation was prepared from the lesions for diagnostic purposes. Clinical material obtained from five patients with pre-diagnosis of CL was firstly examined with Giemsa stain. Samples taken from the patients were inoculated into modified NNN (Novy-MacNeal-Nicolle) medium for the evaluation of the presence of the promastigotes. Promastigotes obtained from the inoculated medium were also genotyped using the ITS1 region. In all of the slides prepared from the clinical material taken from the patients amastigotes were determined. The growth of promastigotes were observed in only three of the clinical specimen inoculated media. The genotyped three species were Leishmania tropica, Leishmania infantum/donovani and Leishmania major. In this study, the importance of support for the diagnosis of different microbiological methods used in the diagnosis of leishmaniasis infection which occurred during the outbreaks of the disease has been put forward. In addition, it was aimed to draw attention to the importance of imported CL cases in our country diagnosed in five truck drivers making transportation from Hatay to Turkmenistan, Syria, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Georgia, Uzbekistan and Azerbaijan.

Leishmaniasis is a parasitic disease that is transmitted to humans by the bites of infected female phlebotomine sandflies. In the diagnosis of cutaneous leishmaniasis (CL), in the smear samples, the demonstration of the parasite by microscope remains a gold standard method. However, it becomes difficult to diagnose the parasite since the number of amastigotes in chronic cases with a lesion of one year or longer is very low. Due to many factor such as patients primarily do not to take any notice these lesions in their bodies, do not apply to health institutions or late applied, receive wrong treatment; the diagnosis and treatment are delayed. In addition, it is been worse prognosis by add secondary infection to lesions and wounds become chronic. For this reason, molecular methods are used in addition to microscopic examination in chronic suspected CL cases. It was aimed to reveal of the molecular diagnostic value in chronic suspected CL cases by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) in the smear belonging to Turkish patients that reported to be evaluated clinically because it can not be seen Leishmania amastigotes in microscopic examination. Smear of 50 Turkish patients who were clinically reported of the evaluation of chronic CL were selected. These samples were smears belonging to suspected CL patients that applied Hatay Mustafa Kemal University, Faculty of Medicine, Parasitology laboratory from different polyclinics and were decided to be evaluated clinically as a result of microscopic examination because they came from endemic regions (such as Hassa, Altınözü, Yayladağı). DNA was isolated from selected samples and PCR was performed using 13A, 13B primers targeting the kinetoplastid DNA (kDNA) region. The samples found positive by PCR were typed by polymerase chain reaction-restriction fragment length polymorphism (PCR-RFLP) analysis using LITSR and L5.8S primers targeting internal transcribed spacer (ITS-1) region. Of the 50 smear samples, 17 (34%) were determined positive with 13A, 13B primers targeting the kinetoplastid DNA (kDNA) region. Positive samples were also found to be positive with LITSR and L5.8S primers targeting ITS-1 region. The PCR products obtained from PCR with ITS-1 gene region were digested with the restriction endonucleases BsuRI (HaeIII). As a result of PCR-RFLP analysis, it was determined that 11 of Leishmania tropica, one of Leishmania major and five of Leishmania infantum/donovani out of 17 samples. Chronic CL can be confused with skin diseases such as sarcoidosis, tuberculosis, malignant tumors. In particular, chronic CL cases can be escaped the attention for many reasons such as failure to diagnose correctly, insufficient microscope experience, fail to see due to low number of parasites. For this reason, it was concluded that PCR, which is a molecular method, should be used in chronic suspected CL samples which are negative for the parasite by microscopic examination.

Leishmaniasis, seen in tropical and subtropical regions, is an infectious disease caused by the protozoan parasite Leishmania species. There are three main forms of leishmaniasis: cutaneous, mucocutaneous and visceral leishmaniasis. Cutaneous leishmaniasis (CL) has become an increasing problem as the number of travels around the world increases and people go to work in endemic areas. Turkey has received great numbers of immigrants in recent years, from its neighboring countries like Iraq, Islamic Republic of Iran, Afghanistan, Turkmenistan and the Syrian Arab Republic because of the political instabilities in these countries as well as the job opportunities caused by large-scale development projects undertaken by Turkey. In this report, imported CL cases detected in five truck drivers transporting from Hatay to Turkmenistan, Syria, Saudi Arabia, Iran and Georgia, Uzbekistan and Azarbaijan countries were presented. The patients admitted to Mustafa Kemal University, Faculty of Medicine Dermatology Policlinic, with wound complaints on their bodies were directed to the Department of Parasitology to obtain smear samples from their wounds. The age range of the patients were 38 to 43 years. Patients with wound trail for a period ranging from one month to one year had a number of lesions varying between 2-7 and in all cases, a smear preparation was prepared from the lesions for diagnostic purposes. Clinical material obtained from five patients with pre-diagnosis of CL was firstly examined with Giemsa stain. Samples taken from the patients were inoculated into modified NNN (Novy-MacNeal-Nicolle) medium for the evaluation of the presence of the promastigotes. Promastigotes obtained from the inoculated medium were also genotyped using the ITS1 region. In all of the slides prepared from the clinical material taken from the patients amastigotes were determined. The growth of promastigotes were observed in only three of the clinical specimen inoculated media. The genotyped three species were Leishmania tropica, Leishmania infantum/donovani and Leishmania major. In this study, the importance of support for the diagnosis of different microbiological methods used in the diagnosis of leishmaniasis infection which occurred during the outbreaks of the disease has been put forward. In addition, it was aimed to draw attention to the importance of imported CL cases in our country diagnosed in five truck drivers making transportation from Hatay to Turkmenistan, Syria, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Georgia, Uzbekistan and Azerbaijan.