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Leishmaniasis is a disease caused by parasites that belong to the genus Leishmania and is transmitted by the bite of certain species of sand fly. Synonyms for leishmaniasis include kala azar, Black Fever, sandfly disease and Dum-Dum fever. The disease is named for William Boog Leishman. Most forms of the disease are zoonosis but some are anthroponosis
Epidemiology
It can be transmitted in many tropical and sub-tropical countries, although the preponderance of cases (more than 90 percent of the world's cases) occur in Bangladesh, Brazil, India, Nepal and Sudan.
Leishmaniasis is present in Iraq and was contracted by a number of the troops involved in the 2003 invasion of that country and the subsequent occupation. The soldiers nicknamed the disease the Baghdad boil.
In 2004, the Colombian army lost 3,400 troops due to Leishmaniasis.
The disease is not found in Australia or Oceania.
Signs and symptoms
The symptoms of leishmaniasis are skin sores which erupt weeks to months after the person affected is bitten by sand flies. Other consequences, which can become manifest anywhere from a few months to years after infection, include fever, damage to the spleen and liver, and anaemia.
In the medical field, leishmaniasis is one of the famous causes of a markedly enlarged spleen (larger even than the liver). There are four main forms of leishmaniasis:
- Visceral leishmaniasis - the most serious form and potentially fatal if untreated.
- Cutaneous leishmaniasis - the most common form which causes numerous sores on the body, which heal within a few months leaving unpleasant looking scars.
- Diffuse cutaneous leishmaniasis - this form produces widespread skin lesions which resemble leprosy and is particularly difficult to treat.
- Mucocutaneous leishmaniasis - commences with skin ulcers which spread causing tissue damage to (particularly) nose and mouth
There are two common therapies containing antimony, antimoniate de méglumine (Glucantime) and sodium stibogluconate (Pentostam). It is not completely understood how these drugs act against the parasite, possibly by disrupting its energy production or trypanothione metabolism.
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