Leishmaniasis is an extremely relevant tropical disease, with global distribution. It still remains a main public health concern in low-income countries, and it is necessary to support more research on this common disease. Thus, a bibliometric analysis of the global scientific production on leishmaniasis was carried out. All the articles registered in Web of Science with the subject of leishmaniasis between 2006 and 2015 were analysed, using Pajek and VOS viewer as tools. 13,658 records in the field of leishmaniasis were indexed in the Web of Science database for this ten-year study period (2006-2015). This shows that studies on leishmaniasis have been growing, from 1071 in 2006 to 1537 in 2015. "Sundar S" is the most active researcher in the field of leishmaniasis, compiling and participating in 232 Articles. Brazil ranks first in scientific production, by performing 3315 studies on leishmaniasis. The United States, United Kingdom and Australia had the most collaboration in performing the studies of leishmaniasis with each other. In addition, PLOS NEGLECTED TROPICAL DISEASES published the most articles, with 483. Our data shows an increase in the number of publications in the field of leishmaniasis. In addition, Brazil, USA, and India lead scientific production on leishmaniasis research.

Over the last decade, the incidence of visceral leishmaniasis (VL) has increased in many districts of the province of Fars, in southern Iran. Recent epidemiological reports indicate that asymptomatic human infections with Leishmania infantum (the causative agent of VL throughout the Mediterranean basin) occur more frequently in Iran than was previously believed. Between 2004 and 2006, blood samples were collected from 802 apparently healthy subjects from communities, in the north-west and south-east of Fars province, where VL cases had been recorded. Each of these samples was tested for anti-Leishmania antibodies, in direct agglutination tests (DAT), and for L. infantum kinetoplast DNA, in PCR-based assays. Of the 426 subjects from north-western Fars, eight (1.9%) were found seropositive and 68 (16.0%) PCR-positive. The corresponding values for the 376 subjects from south-eastern Fars were lower, with five (1.3%) seropositive and 32 (8.5%) PCR-positive. Of the 100 PCR-positive subjects, 18 (18.0%) each lived in a household in which there had been a case of VL, and six (6.0%) had had VL themselves (in each case, more than a year before the blood sampling for the present study). Although 21 of the PCR-positives have now been followed-up for at least 18 months, none has developed symptomatic VL. Since positivity in the PCR-based assay probably indicated the presence of L. infantum amastigotes in the peripheral blood of 12.5% of the subjects, it is clear that asymptomatic human carriers of L. infantum are quite common in the study areas and probably act as reservoirs in the transmission of the parasite, to humans and to dogs, by sandflies.

Introduction We report a case of lophomoniasis in an immunocompetent patient with acute paranasal sinusitis from the north of Iran whose disease was diagnosed by both microscopic and molecular methods.

In recent years feline leishmanial infections (FLI) have been studied more than ever before in various parts of the world. However, evidence-based knowledge on FLI has remained unavailable. The main objectives of this study were to investigate the status of felines infected by Leishmania spp. worldwide. Data were extracted from 10 available databases over the period of 1982 to 2017. Overall, 78 articles fulfilled the inclusion criteria and were used for data extraction in this systematic review. The overall FLI prevalence by both serological and molecular methods was estimated at 10% (95% CI: 8%-14%). In Italy, both the seroprevalence (24 %) and PCR prevalence (21 %) were found to be higher than in other countries. The most common diagnostic test used was the indirect fluorescent antibody test (38.5%). Studies on mixed-breed felines were more common than those on other breeds, while the most common parasite species was L. infantum (63%). Our findings suggest that cats act as primary and/or secondary reservoir hosts in the transmission of the Leishmania spp. to humans and also to dogs, by sandflies, at least in endemic foci. Moreover, available data confirm the enzootic stability situation of FLI in several countries including some in Europe.

Leishmaniasis is a major public health problem worldwide. The aim of the present study was to investigate medicinal plants with anti-Leishmania activity which used in Iran. Data were systematically gathered from five English databases including Ebsco, Science Direct, PubMed, Google Scholar and Scopus, four Persian databases including Magiran, Iran doc, Iran medex and the Scientific Information Database (SID) from 1999 to April 2015. Information obtained included plant family, extraction method, concentrations of extracts, animal models and parasite strains. A total of 68 articles including 188 experiments (140 in vitro and 48 in vivo) between 1999 and 2015, met our eligibility criteria. Thoroughly, 98 types of plants were examined against three genera of Leishmania spp. For the heterogeneity study conducted, it was showed that there was a great deal of variation among studies. Based on random effect, meta-analysis pooled mean of IC50 was obtained 456.64 (95% CI: 396.15, 517.12). The most Iranian plants used as anti-leishmanial activity were Artemisia species, Allium sativum, Achilleamille folium, Peganum harmala and Thymus vulgaris. The present systematic and meta-analysis review provide valuable information about natural products with anti-Leishmania activity, which would be examined in the future experimental and clinical trials and herbal combination therapy.