Zoonotic cutaneous leishmaniasis in Saudi Arabia: the incrimination of Phlebotomus papatasi as the vector in the Al-Hassa oasis.

Surveys of the phlebotomine fauna in a focus of zoonotic cutaneous leishmaniasis (ZCL) in the Al-Hassa oasis, Eastern Province, Saudi Arabia, revealed only one species of Phlebotomus (P. papatasi) and three of Sergentomyia (S. antennata, S. clydei and S. fallax). 11 specimens of P. papatasi from six sites in the oasis were found with promastigotes in the midgut. An isolate from one of the sandflies was typed by the examination of isoenzymes and identified as Leishmania major, zymodeme LON-4 (= Montpellier zymodeme 26), the principal zymodeme of L. major isolated from patients with ZCL in the oasis. Three isolates from leishmanial lesions at sites of the bites of wild caught specimens of P. papatasi were also identified as the same zymodeme of L. major as the isolate from the sandfly. The findings show that P. papatasi is the vector of ZCL in the Al-Hassa oasis and probably in other ecologically similar foci in the Kingdom.