Cross‐sectional screening study for Leishmania DNA and antibodies in biologic‐treated patients with psoriasis living in an area endemic for leishmaniasis

Visceral Leishmaniasis after Anti-Interleukin 17A (IL-17A) Therapy in a Patient Affected by Psoriatic Arthritis

“…Moreover, Maritati et al found a higher prevalence of subclinical leishmaniasis in patients with inflammatory rheumatic diseases receiving biological drugs than in those treated with other immunosuppressive drugs [ 18 ]. In addition, Kurizky et al conducted a cross-sectional screening study in an area endemic to leishmaniasis with a cohort of 311 patients undergoing treatment with immune suppressive regimens [ 19 ]. They found that a total of 29 patients (seven serology alone, thirteen conventional PCR and nine real-time PCR) were positive for Leishmania spp.…”

“…Recently, Kurizky and colleagues published a systematic review that tried to assess the real burden of Leishmaniasis in the whole immunosuppressed population [ 19 ]. In their work, the mean age at the time of leishmaniasis development was 51.63 years and the mean duration of immunosuppression was 5.75 years [ 19 ].…”

“…They observed how the problem of patients treated with immunosuppressive drugs is mostly reported in European countries around the Mediterranean Sea. In Italy, the most common diseases are systemic lupus erytematous, rheumatic arthritis, Wegener disease and psoriatic arthritis, while the most frequent species of Leishmania are L. infantum and L. donovani [ 19 ].…”

Imported leishmaniasis in travelers: a 7-year retrospective from a Parisian hospital in France

“…Thus, the disappearance of circulating DNA after treatment does not mean the parasite has been cleared from the organism, hence the possible reoccurrence of the disease [ 22 ]. Conversely, detection of leishmania DNA is not synonymous of an ongoing clinical active disease [ 28 ]. Visceral leishmaniasis is also a differential diagnosis of leukemia-like syndromes in infants living or traveling to endemic countries, as observed here for a pediatric case [ 29 , 30 ].…”