TY - JOUR
T1 - Surveillance of leishmaniasis cases from 15 European centres, 2014 to 2019
T2 - a retrospective analysis
AU - van der Auwera, Gert
AU - Davidsson, Leigh
AU - Buffet, Pierre
AU - Ruf, Marie-Thérèse
AU - Gramiccia, Marina
AU - Varani, Stefania
AU - Chicharro, Carmen
AU - Bart, Aldert
AU - Harms, Gundel
AU - Chiodini, Peter L.
AU - Brekke, Hanne
AU - Robert-Gangneux, Florence
AU - Cortes, Sofia
AU - Verweij, Jaco J.
AU - Scarabello, Alessandra
AU - Karlsson Söbirk, Sara
AU - LeishMan Surveillance network
AU - Guéry, Romain
AU - van Henten, Saskia
AU - di Muccio, Trentina
AU - LeishMan Surveillance Network members who contributed to this article (in addition to authors above)
AU - Carra, Elena
AU - van Thiel, Pieter
AU - Vandeputte, Martin
AU - Gaspari, Valeria
AU - Blum, Johannes
N1 - Funding Information: Funding statement: No funding was obtained for this study. GVdA is supported by DGD-Belgium. PLC is supported by the University College London Hospitals Biomedical Research Centre. Publisher Copyright: © 2022 European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC). All rights reserved.
PY - 2022/1/27
Y1 - 2022/1/27
N2 - BackgroundSurveillance of human leishmaniasis in Europe is mostly limited to country-specific information from autochthonous infections in the southern part. As at the end of 2021, no integrated analysis has been performed for cases seen across centres in different European countries.AimTo provide a broad perspective on autochthonous and imported leishmaniasis cases in endemic and non-endemic countries in Europe.MethodsWe retrospectively collected records from cutaneous, mucosal and visceral leishmaniasis cases diagnosed in 15 centres between 2014 and 2019. Centres were located in 11 countries: Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom. Data on country of infection, reason for travelling, infecting species, age and sex were analysed.ResultsWe obtained diagnostic files from 1,142 cases, of which 76%, 21% and 3% had cutaneous, visceral, and mucosal disease, respectively. Of these, 68% were men, and 32% women, with the median age of 37 years (range: 0-90) at diagnosis. Visceral leishmaniasis was mainly acquired in Europe (88%; 167/190), while cutaneous leishmaniasis was primarily imported from outside Europe (77%; 575/749). Sixty-two percent of cutaneous leishmaniasis cases from outside Europe were from the Old World, and 38% from the New World. Geographic species distribution largely confirmed known epidemiology, with notable exceptions.ConclusionsOur study confirms previous reports regarding geographic origin, species, and traveller subgroups importing leishmaniasis into Europe. We demonstrate the importance of pooling species typing data from many centres, even from areas where the aetiology is presumably known, to monitor changing epidemiology.
AB - BackgroundSurveillance of human leishmaniasis in Europe is mostly limited to country-specific information from autochthonous infections in the southern part. As at the end of 2021, no integrated analysis has been performed for cases seen across centres in different European countries.AimTo provide a broad perspective on autochthonous and imported leishmaniasis cases in endemic and non-endemic countries in Europe.MethodsWe retrospectively collected records from cutaneous, mucosal and visceral leishmaniasis cases diagnosed in 15 centres between 2014 and 2019. Centres were located in 11 countries: Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom. Data on country of infection, reason for travelling, infecting species, age and sex were analysed.ResultsWe obtained diagnostic files from 1,142 cases, of which 76%, 21% and 3% had cutaneous, visceral, and mucosal disease, respectively. Of these, 68% were men, and 32% women, with the median age of 37 years (range: 0-90) at diagnosis. Visceral leishmaniasis was mainly acquired in Europe (88%; 167/190), while cutaneous leishmaniasis was primarily imported from outside Europe (77%; 575/749). Sixty-two percent of cutaneous leishmaniasis cases from outside Europe were from the Old World, and 38% from the New World. Geographic species distribution largely confirmed known epidemiology, with notable exceptions.ConclusionsOur study confirms previous reports regarding geographic origin, species, and traveller subgroups importing leishmaniasis into Europe. We demonstrate the importance of pooling species typing data from many centres, even from areas where the aetiology is presumably known, to monitor changing epidemiology.
KW - Europe
KW - Leishmania
KW - authochthonous
KW - imported
KW - leishmaniasis
KW - surveillance
KW - travel
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85123816603&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - https://doi.org/10.2807/1560-7917.ES.2022.27.4.2002028
DO - https://doi.org/10.2807/1560-7917.ES.2022.27.4.2002028
M3 - Article
C2 - 35086613
SN - 1025-496X
VL - 27
JO - Euro surveillance
JF - Euro surveillance
IS - 4
ER -