Cutaneous leishmaniasis caused by Leishmania tropica in Algeria.

Cutaneous leishmaniasis is endemic in Algeria, but clinical and parasitological data from this area are scarce. In order to document the transmission of this disease in a peri-urban setting, cutaneous lesions from patients living in Constantine City and surrounding areas were spotted on filter paper for diagnosis and species identification using real-time PCR. Surprisingly, Leishmania tropica was detected in 6/69 patients, and confirmation was obtained by sequencing. This observation suggests a modification of the epidemiology of cutaneous leishmaniasis in Algeria and should alert physicians and policy-makers to the risk of antimony treatment failure with this species.