Leishmania donovani in blood smears of asymptomatic persons

Leishmania amastigotes have been detected in the peripheral blood smears of Indian kala-azar patients mostly during night. It was, therefore, thought worthwhile to find out whether such amastigotes could be shown in healthy s ubjects who did not have any symptoms by history or signs on clinical exami nation. Leishmania-stained blood smears of 450 asymptomatic healthy individ uals residing in an endemic village in Bihar (India) were examined by oil-i mmersion microscopy for the detection of amastigote, six people (1.3%) show ed the presence of Leishmania amastigotes. Given the low sensitivity of a s ingle smear examination it is likely that a much greater proportion of asym ptomatic persons had parasitemia than the observed 1.3%. This finding is im portant from the point of view of transmission of disease, as also for modi fying the current control measures. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All righ ts reserved.