Table. Leishmaniasis situation in 7 disease-endemic countries of Europe (including Turkey)*.
| Country | Human leishmaniasis |
Canine leishmaniasis | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Notification status | Current information from reference centers (2000–2006) | VL + CL incidence x 100,000† | Imported cases (VL + CL) | ||
| Portugal‡ | Compulsory for VL | ≈22 VL cases/y recorded at IHMT | 0.07–0.17 | ≈2 cases/y recorded at IHMT | Average 20% seroprevalence in disease-endemic areas (3) |
| Spain§ | Compulsory in 12/17 autonomous communities; 20%–45% underreporting for VL, ≈100% for CL (4) | ≈100 VL cases/y recorded by National Epidemiologic Surveillance Network, RENAVE | 0.18–0.29 | ≈5 cases/y recorded at ISCIII | Average 8.5% seroprevalence (5) |
| France¶ | Not compulsory, but spontaneous reports at UMON | ≈24 VL + CL cases/y reported at UMON | 0.02–0.19 | ≈65 cases/y recorded at UMON | Seroprevalence in disease-endemic areas of southern France 4%–20%# |
| Italy** | Compulsory for both VL and CL, but CL underreported | ≈200 VL cases/y recorded at ISS; ≈300 CL cases/y estimated by ISS | 0.15–0.38 | ≈8 cases/y recorded at ISS | Average 15% seroprevalence in peninsular Italy; average 2% seroprevalence in continental Italy (6) |
| Greece†† | Compulsory for both VL and CL, but underreported | ≈21 VL cases/y notified | 0.06–0.49 | Unknown | Average seroprevalence 25% in disease-endemic areas (7) |
| Cyprus‡‡ | Compulsory for both VL and CL, but underreported | 5 VL + CL cases recorded in 2006 | 0.25–0.47 | Unknown | Average seroprevalence 20% in disease-endemic areas |
| Turkey§§ | Compulsory for both VL and CL | ≈37 VL cases/y and ≈2,300 CL cases/y notified | 1.6–8.53 | Unknown | Average 15.7% seroprevalence |
*Authors’ institutions are national reference laboratories for leishmaniasis diagnosis and surveillance and rely on consolidated countrywide networks of collaborating clinical health centers. Diagnosis records are cross-checked with case notifications to provide more realistic figures and estimates. VL, visceral leishmaniasis; CL, cutaneous Leishmaniasis; WHO, World Health Organization. †WHO-EURO, WHO Europe, 1996–2005; http://data.euro.who.int/CISID. ‡Instituto de Higiene e Medicina Tropical (IHMT), Lisbon, Portugal. §Instituto de Salud Carlos III (ISCIII), Madrid, Spain. ¶Université de Montpellier (UMON), data from Centre National de Référence des Leishmania, Montpellier, France. #Source: retrospective canine leishmaniasis database, Centre National de Référence des Leishmania. **Istituto Superiore di Sanità (ISS), Rome, Italy. ††Hellenic Pasteur Institute (HPI), Athens, Greece. ‡‡National Reference Laboratory for Animal Health (VS), Nicosia, Cyprus. §§Ege University (EUMS-DP), Izmir, Turkey.