ArticleTropical medicine and health2025
Screening for visceral leishmaniasis in humans and animals in Laos.
Article in Tropical medicine and health, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 2 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
2 citing papers in PubMed.
- Zoonotic neglected tropical diseases at the animal-human interface in the Greater Mekong Subregion: Two decades of surveillance in Laos and Cambodia.PLoS neglected tropical diseases · 2026Review
- Analysis of Phlebotomine sandflies in Laos from 2014-2024: Inventory, description of a new species, screening for Leishmania and detection of Trypanosoma.PLoS neglected tropical diseases · 2026Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
26 authors.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundVisceral leishmaniasis (VL) is a vector-borne protozoan disease with a global distribution, with higher rates of infection associated with HIV. Zoonotic species of Leishmania have also been reported infecting domestic animals. Reports of VL are increasing in Southeast Asia, with over 200 cases reported in Thailand since the first autochthonous case in 1999, and recently the first patients have been reported from Vietnam and Cambodia. However, no cases of VL have been reported from Lao PDR (Laos) and clinical awareness of the disease is limited. This study aimed to investigate whether Leishmania is circulating in Laos by screening people living with HIV, stored samples from unselected patients with fever, and ruminants taken to abattoirs.
methodsPeople living with HIV from two specialist units in Vientiane Capital had EDTA blood taken and DNA extracted and tested for Leishmania by nested-PCR. Stored serum samples from patients presenting to Mahosot Hospital with fever and without known HIV infection, as well as serum from goats, cows and buffalo taken to abattoirs in four provinces in Laos were tested for Leishmania using the InBios Kalazar Detect Rapid Test.
resultsThere were 1015 people living with HIV tested between 2021 and 2024 for Leishmania by nested-PCR, all of whom were negative. Of 511 human serum samples collected between 2005 and 2023, two (0.4%) tested positive by rapid test. These samples were identified as coming from the same patient, with samples taken 10 months apart. There were 5/159 (3.1%) ruminant serum samples positive by rapid test with 3/45 (6.7%) buffalo positive, 2/47 (4.3%) goat positive and 0/67 cows positive.
conclusionsThis study suggests Leishmania may be circulating in Laos with undetected cases. Further investigation is needed to confirm the findings, determine at-risk populations and increase clinical awareness of the disease. This study expands on the current regional knowledge on leishmaniasis and shows the need for further epidemiological studies.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What Socratic holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the Socratic graph.