Background & Objectives: Leishmania infantum is the causative agent of visceral leishmaniasis (VL). Based on isoenzyme typing of a few isolates from patients and domestic dogs, this parasite was considered to predominate in the Kaleybar focus of VL in northwest Iran. There is no report of sandfly infections in this region so this study was aimed to investigate the infection of the sandflies in the field.

  Methods: Sandflies were sampled using sticky paper and CDC traps. Morphological identifications were carried out based on characters of the head and abdominal terminalia. DNA extracted from sandflies abdomens and thoraxes. ITS-rDNA gene of parasite was detected and identified as Leishmania after sequencing.

  Results: Out of 146 sandflies 9 were found to be infected with Leishmania. For first time, three Leishmania species (L. infantum, L. tropica and L. major) were identified in sandflies simultaneously in the region. Among the all sandflies only one Phlebotomus perfiliewi (vector of VL) was found to be infected with L. infantum. All Isolates were confirmed by sequencing of ITS-rDNA gene.

  Conclusion: However, Leishmania tropica and L. major were found more than L. infantum in sandflies in Kaleybar but it could not conclude that these two species of Leishmania are causative agents of VL. Because many criteria should be considered to incriminate an agent or vector of the disease.

Background & objectives: Streptococcus pneumoniae is  one of the major causes of vaccine - preventable diseases worldwide. Current pneumococcal vaccines consist of serotype specific capsular polysaccharide antigen and do not offer full clinical protection against pneumococcal diseases. Due to such limitations, a new generation of protein-based pneumococcal vaccines is being developed. The objective of this study was to determine the distribution of gens encoding five protein antigens including pneumococcal histidine triad D and E (phtD, phtE), rlr- regulated gene A (rrgA), Autolysin (lytA) and Pneumococcal surface protein C (pcpC) among pneumococcal isolates collected from nasopharyngeal specimens in healthy children.

Methods: A total of 43 pneumococcal isolates were collected from nasopharyngeal specimens of healthy children attending the kindergartens in Ardabil province. The strains were identified using optochin susceptibility and bile solubility testes and further confirmed by amplification of capsular polysaccharide A gene (cpsA). PCR was used for screening the presence of pcpC, phtD, phtE, rrgA and lytA genes.

Results: 81.4 % of isolates were found to contain at least one of the tested genes. lytA, pcpC, phtE, phtD and rrgA were detected in 70, 60, 39.5, 35 and 25.5 percent of isolates, respectively. The results showed that the genes were not distributed consistently among the isolates and for obtaining a full coverage pneumococcal vaccine, multiple choices of these antigens should be included.