To determine the clinical and biochemical characteristics of Yemeni adults and children with visceral leishmaniasis (VL) and the differences between them.

A prospective cross-sectional study on patients with bone marrow aspirate confirmed VL evaluated at Al-Jomhori Teaching Hospital in Sana’a, Yemen.

Twenty-eight (59.6%) patients were adults with a mean age (± SD) of 24.3 years ± 9.2 and 19 (40.4%) patients were children with a mean age (± SD) of 7.1 years ± 4.7. Fever, pallor, splenomegaly and hepatomegaly were the most common clinical findings. Hypoalbuminaemia, hyperglobulinaemia, elevated LDH, hypocalcaemia and elevated CRP were common biochemical abnormalities. There was no significant difference in splenomegaly size or biochemical parameters with regard to grade of parasitic load. Both children and adults showed similar significant improvement after treatment.

Biochemical abnormalities were not related to degree of parasitic load and there were no clinical, biochemical or treatment differences between adults and children.