Résumé
The isoenzymatic characterization of 65 Tunisian strains of
Leishmania, isolated from human cases of visceral leishmaniasis between June 1998 and August 2001, revealed the existence of 3 zymodemes of the
L. infantum complex: MON-1 the most common (93·8%), followed by MON-24 (3·1%) and MON-80 (3·1%). 72% of the strains were obtained from children under the age of 5 years. The majority of the studied strains originated from 8 provinces of northern Tunisia, particularly the province of Zaghouan.