Delayed diagnosis among patients with visceral leishmaniasis

We aimed to estimate the diagnostic latency of patients with visceral leishmaniasis (VL). A monocentric retrospective observational study was conducted including all confirmed cases of VL diagnosed from January 2005 to March 2022. Epidemiological and clinical characteristics of patients with VL were collected. The diagnostic latency was defined as the number of days between the first contact with a health-care provider for signs and/or symptoms referable to VL and the laboratory diagnosis of leishmaniasis. Twenty-four cases of VL were included in the study, mostly male (75%) and Italians (79.2%), with a median age of 40 years [Inter Quartile Range (IQR 30–48)]. Fourteen (58.3%) VL cases were people living with HIV (PLWH) and 4 (16.6%) subjects were on immunosuppressive therapy. For VL the median diagnostic latency was 54 days (IQR 28–162). The shorter diagnostic latency was observed in PLWH [31 days (IQR 20–47)] followed by immunocompetent patients [160 days (IQR 133–247)] and those on immunosuppressive therapy [329 days (IQR 200–678)]. Twelve patients (50%) reported at least one medical encounter before the diagnosis of VL and 6 patients received a wrong therapy. Diagnostic delay in VL was significant in patients under immune suppressive treatment.