Clinically visceral leishmaniasis is suspected in only a fraction of infected persons, as the majority of these may not have clinical manifestations and remain asymptomatic. There is scanty information on diagnosing latent infections and predicting disease in asymptomatic persons. We therefore carried out a study on asymptomatic contacts of patients with visceral leishmaniasis and post-kala-aza...

The third instar larvae of Gepus invisus and Solter liber are comparatively described and illustrated for the first time with a particular emphasis on genus level characters. Larval morphology confirms a close relationship between these genera as they differ only in minor characters.

Žydelis et al. (2009 [this issue]) is a direct critique of 2 recent papers we published on the use of biodiversity offsets in managing fisheries bycatch (Wilcox & Donlan 2007; Donlan & Wilcox 2008). The authors misrepresent the use of biodiversity offsets as we presented them, misunderstand the policy objectives of fisheries (and bycatch) management, present a flawed analysis of the appropriate...

IN the years following 1858, when the British government formally assumed power over the whole of British India, the government of Bengal became concerned by reports of an epidemic of quinine-resistant fever occurring in the district of Burdwan in Lower Bengal. The mortality was so great that the population, the productivity of the land, and consequently the government revenue were greatly dimi...

In 1950s the Government of India under National Malaria Eradication Programme (NMEP) now National Vector Borne Disease Control Programme, launched massive insecticidal spraying with DDT for malaria vector control and kala-azar came to a halt in Assam as a collateral benefit of malaria eradication programme. As a result, there were no further reports of kala-azar from the northeastern region exc...

Sir, Kala-azar, transmitted by sandflies was endemic in Assam until 1950, with three major epidemics between 1875 and 19501,2. Intensive insecticide spraying as part of National Malaria Eradication Programme eliminated the disease from Assam by mid 1950s, except for isolated case reports upto 19853. We recently diagnosed kalaazar in an adult male aged 43 years from Guwahati city, Assam, who was...