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Ticks collected in Northern Algeria between May 2001 and November 2003 were tested by PCR for the presence of Rickettsia spp. DNA using primer amplifying gltA and OmpA genes. Three different spotted fever group rickettsias were amplified from these ticks: R. Conorii subsp. P. conorii strain Malish in Rhipicephalus sanguineus, R. aeschlimannii in Hyalomma marginatum, and R. massiliae in Rhipicephalus turanicus. Our results confirm the presence of R. conorii in ticks in Algeria and provide the first detection of R. aeschlimannii and R. massiliae in Algeria.

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Two forms of cutaneous leishmaniasis are endemic in Algeria. Zoonotic cutaneous leishmaniasis caused by Leishmania major is widespread in the steppe regions of the northern Sahara. Sporadic cutaneous leishmaniasis caused by Leishmania infantum occurs in the north along the coastline. The main causative agent for the sporadic form is Leishmania infantum zymodeme MON-24. It has been isolated from the sandfly vector Phlebotomus perfiliewi. However all attempts to isolate this variant from dogs, i.e., the main reservoir of Leishmania infantum, have failed. The authors report the first successful detection of Leishmania infantum MON-24 in the dog.

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The authors review the situation on human and canine leishmaniasis observed in Algiers during the period 1990-1997. 1800 sera have been tested by IFAT. The frequency of canine leishmaniasis rises to 37%. 25% of the positive dogs are asymptomatic. The canine leishmaniasis annual fluctuations seem to vary from one year to another, with an increase of number of cases comparing with the last period. Human leishmaniasis is also increasing in Algiers, where 22 cases of HVL and 40 cases CL have been notified. Nine strains of Leishmania (5 from dogs and 4 from human) were isolated and identified by isoenzymes eletrophoresis technique. All stocks were belonging to Leishmania infantum complex. To complete the study, the seasonal dynamic of phlebotomine sandflies was carried out in the same area where 2959 specimens have been captured. The results showed the predominance of P. perniciosus and P. longicuspis, the main vectors of visceral leishmaniasis in Algeria.

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Iso-enzymatic characterization of 19 Leishmania strains isolated from Tunisian dogs revealed that all correspond to Leishmania infantum MON-1. This confirms the role of dog as a reservoir of the commonest zymodeme responsible for human visceral leishmaniasis in the Mediterranean basin. However, and in spite of the high number of identifications, many zymodemes, mainly the dermotropic ones as Leishmania infantum MON-24, frequently reported in humans, had never been isolated from dogs. The study of their cultural characteristics may contribute to explain the particular iso-enzymatic profile of dogs strains.

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In Algeria, visceral leishmaniasis is caused principally by Leishmania infantum MON-1, a common agent of the disease on the edges of the mediterranean basin. Other zymodemes (MON-34 and MON-80) of the same complex have also been isolated from immunologically competent patients. In the present study, the authors report the presence of Leishmania infantum MON-24, the main agent of cutaneous leishmaniasis in northern Algeria, in five children with visceral leishmaniasis.

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The gp63 encoding genes were characterized by PCR-RFLP in 35 isolates representative of the Leishmania donovani complex (L. infantum, L. donovani, L. archibaldi and L. chagasi), with special attention to Mediterranean L. infantum from different geographical origins, and in separate groups from Old World Leishmania (L. major, L. tropica and L. aethiopica). The aim was to evaluate how the possible selective pressure by the host on these important surface proteins would influence structuring of our sample. Comparison was carried out with the structure obtained (i) from reported isoenzyme data, characters supposed to vary neutrally, and (ii) from PCR-RFLP analysis of gp63 inter-genic regions, containing nontranslated spacers and regulatory genes. Polymorphism within the gp63-encoding region, was much higher than in gp63 inter-genic regions. In the gp63 intra-genic dendrogram, the 4 species of L. donovani complex were discriminated and quite distinct from outgroups. Within L. infantum, geographical structuring was observed and did not overlap with the structure built-up from isoenzymes and inter-genic data. These results support the idea of a strong host-selection on gp63, at vector level but most of all at vertebrate (human or dog) immunological level. Furthermore, they illustrate how the nature of genetic characters may influence the perception of population structuring.

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The isoenzymatic typing of 16 stocks of Leishmania, isolated from Tunisian visceral leishmaniasis (VL) cases, revealed that all strains belonged to Leishmania (L.) infantum species. Although zymodeme MON-1 was predictably the most frequent (9 cases), it came as a surprise that L. infantum MON-24 was responsible of about third of cases. This latter zymodeme, while previously reported in Tunisia, Algeria and Spain, was assumed to be a dermotropic and the few cases of VL that it caused occurred always in HIV infected patients. L. infantum MON-80, occasionally reported during both cutaneous and VL of immunocompetent infants was identified in 2 patients. This report confirms that in addition to the more common L. infantum MON-1, zymodeme MON-24 has a substantial role in generating VL in immunocompetent infants in Tunisia.

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This study refers to 23 patients presenting with the sporadic forms of cutaneous leishmaniasis encountered in northern most humid parts of Tunisia. Culture inoculation for parasitic isolation was processed using two media: the classical NNN and a rabbit serum based medium (SLC). Cultures were positive in 17 cases with SLC medium and 13 cases with NNN medium. Eight isolates were typed using 15 isoenzymes systems. Six isolates were identified as Leishmania infantum MON-24 which confirms the crucial role of this zymodeme in causing this form of cutaneous leishmaniasis. The other two isolates were identified as Leishmania infantum MON-1, which is the principal agent of visceral leishmaniasis in the Mediterranean area.

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A definitive confirmation of the presence in Tunisia of the rare zymodem MON-80 of Leishmania infantum, as a causative agent of infantile visceral leishmaniasis, is reported.

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The purpose of this study is to identity the strains of Echinococcus granulosus the causative agent of unilocular hydatid in Algeria--a high endemic area. For this, the authors established a simple and reproductible electrophoretic techniques for iso enzyme analysis of protoscoleces. The enzymatic extracts of protoscoleces from various hosts and localisations of hidatic cystic analysed by these electrophoretic techniques showed variable electrophoretic profils witness the existence of various strains.

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Leishmaniasis, Zoonoses or Anthroponoses, according to the focus, know an extension through the world and Algeria counts unfortunately more among countries who where touched. Parallelement to this extension the eco-epidemiology of leishmaniasis knex some important modifications and that. We can't surround theme if we don't dispose of a simple culture medium permeting the shoot of all species to leishmania.

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The present study aimed at homogenizing the use of DNA tools for Leishmania parasite characterization in two endemic countries, Algeria and Tunisia. Two genomic DNA probes, pDK10 and pDK20, previously developped in Tunisia, were here applied to a collection of 41 isolates obtained from Algerian patients having cutaneous or visceral leishmaniases. These DNA tools allowed to discriminate among and to identify causal agents of cutaneous leishmaniasis, L. infantum and L. major. Apart from the pDK20--hybridization pattern obtained usually for the species L. infantum, new hybridization patterns were identified for isolates obtained from both visceral and cutaneous leishmaniases patients. Use of DNA probes in complement to isoenzyme typing offers interesting propects for a better description of transmission cycles.

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The cryptococcosis is an opportunist infection, frequent during Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrom (A.I.D.S.). It increases in the same way as the increase of immunodepression factors. This infection is due essentially to Cryptococcus neoformans. This paper deals with the analysis of four (04) cases of cryptococcosis admitted in El-Hadi FLICI hospital in Algiers from November 1997 to February 1998. Among these cases we have taken note of two patients struck doxn by A.I.D.S., one of them have undergone a kidney transplant, whereas the other suffered from sarcoidose and pulmonary tuberculosis. The diagnostic of cryptococcosis have been based essentially on C.S.E. examination.

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Malaria ceased to be endemic in France in 1960, although sporadic cases were reported until 1970 in the department of Corse. No indigenous case of malaria have been reported since then. We report below the epidemiological data on imported malaria in 1996.

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Concerning malaria, the role of the Reference National Centre on the Imported Diseases is to observe the cases that occur on the continent in order to describe their characteristics, assess their annual incidence and objectify the secular trend. The aim is to provide annual indicators to help to advise travellers. This surveillance is based on a voluntary network providing standardised informations on the epidemiologic, prophylactic, clinical, parasitologic and therapeutic data. After a noticeable increase between 1987 and 1988, the occurrence of the imported malaria cases in France decreased since 1989 then became stable since 1991, between 3,500 and 4,000 cases per year. From one year to another the characteristics of the cases are stable for most of the parameters. However, it is interesting to note: a progressive increase in the ratio of foreigners with a decrease of the median age, the average five days delay between the first symptoms and the diagnostic, the same ratio of severe cases for French people and foreigners, the average time of the stay at the hospital of 4.5 days for non severe malaria cases and the preferential use of halofantrine in first line treatment. The delay of the diagnostic and more precisely the delay of treatment turn-out to be the main factors leading to severe malaria sometimes leading to death. The limited interpretation of data is due to the lack of corresponding denominators required for measuring the rates and density of the incidence as well as the identification of risk factors.

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Since 1980, the development of leishmaniasis in Algeria has been marked by a considerable increase in the number of cases of both visceral leishmaniasis (1121 cases recorded) and cutaneous leishmaniasis (more than 2000 cases per year). New Leishmania infantum and L. major foci have appeared in the north and south of the country. During this period, 100 strains of Leishmania isolated from humans, other mammals and sandflies have been identified. The presence of L. major MON-25 in Psammomys obesus and Phlebotomus papatasi had identified these species as the main reservoir and vector, respectively, of zoonotic cutaneous leishmaniasis. Similarly, the presence of L. infantum MON-1 in Ph. perniciosus and dogs has implicated them as the vector and reservoir of visceral leishmaniasis. The isolation of the dermotropic zymodeme MON-24 of L. infantum from Ph. perfiliewi suggested that it was one of the main vectors of cutaneous leishmaniasis in the north of the country; the reservoir has not been identified. In addition, other zymodemes of Leishmania have been identified in visceral leishmaniasis patients, frequently associated with human immunodeficiency virus (MON-24, MON-33, MON-34 and MON-78), in patients with cutaneous leishmaniasis (MON-80), and in dogs with leishmaniasis (MON-34 and MON-77).

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Mainly due to P. vivax, the autochtonous malaria - sometimes caused by P. malaria, scarcely by P. falciparum - is spread in the whole Europe until the 18th century, decreasingly during the second part of the 19th century, while the latest documented cases were noticed in Macedonia, 1974. In France malaria spontaneously disappeared in 1943 on the mainland, and after, DDT house-spraying, in Corsica, 1959-60 (in spite of a temporarily reintroduction run in 1970). Malaria is now eradicated from Europe officially since 1975. Since 1969, approximatively 60 cases of autochtonous "airborne or airport malaria" have been officially reported from various European countries : Belgium, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, United Kingdom, Spain, Swiss, and France. Most of the 23 cases run into France were due to P. falciparum and appeared during summer. All patients were living, working or both, in the vicinity of an international airport or harbour (2 cases). Few of theses cases queerly involved a second-step carriage of Anopheles. The illness is usually severe and case fatality rate is therefore high, because of the subject's absence of premunition and no history of tropical travel, and then, the infection may be unfortunately misdiagnosed. According to the International Health Regulations, disinsection of aircrafts must be systematically done and even enhanced as soon as possible. On the other hand some of new methods for the aircraft disinsection and improved international vector control must be developped.

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Leishmania promastigotes polypeptides are analyzed by immunoblotting with sera from patients infected with different Leishmania species and presenting visceral or cutaneous infections. These sera recognize Leishmania polypeptides in several molecular masses. The major findings of this study are as follow. 1) The Leishmania 94 kDa antigen, which is specifically recognized by all sera from L. infantum-infected patients with visceral infection, is recognized by some sera from L. infantum-infected patients presenting cutaneous infection. 2) All patients with cutaneous infections due to L. tropica, L. amazonensis, or L. guyanensis do not develop anti-94 kDa antibodies, whatever the Leishmania species used as antigens. 3) Difference in electrophoretic mobilities is seen between the 94 kDa antigen identified by sera from Leishmania infantum-infected patients, and the antigen both recognized by the Concavalin A lectin and a rabbit antiserum raised against deglycosylated Promastigote Surface Protease.

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The authors describe in this study the current situation of cutaneous and visceral leishmaniasis in Algeria. After a review of the clinical forms and the epidemiological profile of the diseases in this country, the authors mention a resurgence of the number of cases, and the appearance of numerous new foci for both forms of the disease.

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