Visceral leishmaniosis caused by Leishmania (L.) mexicana in a Mexican patient with human immunodeficiency virus infection

A 36 year old male was admitted in December 1997 to hospital with afternoon fever, malaise and hepatosplenomegaly. He also had a dry cough, dyspnoea a nd anaemia, Pneumonia caused by Pneumocystis carinii and human immunodefici ency vir us (HIV) infection were documented The HIV infection was confirmed in 1997 with 290,000 virus copies. The patient had been in the Mexican Sta te of Chiapas which is known to be endemic for visceral leishmaniosis (VL) and localized cutaneous leishmaniosis (LCL). The visceral symptoms were dia gnosed as VL and the causal agent was identified as Leishmania (L.) mexican a. Identification of Leishmania was carried out by the analysis of amplifie d DNA with specific primers belonging to the Leishmania subgenus and by dot blot positive hybridisation of these polymerase chain reaction derived pro ducts with kDNA from the L. (L.) mexicana IMC strain used as probe. This is the first case in Mexico of VL caused by a species of Leishmania that typi cally produces a cutaneous disease form.