geographical distribution of leishmania species of human cutaneous leishmaniasis in fars province, southern iran.

background : the goal of this study was to know the identity of leishmania species responsible of cutaneous leishmaniasis (cl) in fars province, southern iran. methods : five counties of shiraz, firouz abad, ghir-karzin, farashband and larestan were pros-pected. forty-four patients exhibiting cutaneous lesions were selected. samples collected on skin le-sions were examined both microscopically (after giemsa staining) and molecularly (after pcr-rflp). results: on the 44 examined patients, 39 exhibit leishmania sp. by microscopical examination, all confirmed by pcr. for five patients with negative microscopical examination, pcr was positive for three of them. among these 42 positive samples, 3 (7%) were infected by l. tropica and 39 (93%) by l. major . conclusions : leishmania major is the most prevalent species in prospected area and l. tropica occurs in shiraz and ghir-karzin counties.