Visceral leishmaniasis, or kala-azar, a fatal tropical disease, remains problematic, as early diagnosis is difficult and treatment often results in drug resistance and relapse. We have developed a sensitive enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA), using leishmanial membrane antigenic extracts (LAg) to detect specific antibody responses in 25 untreated Indian visceral leishmaniasis patients. T...

Leishmaniasis is an imported disease in the Netherlands. We report data for the period between 2005 and 2012, on clinical presentation, country where leishmaniasis was acquired, and causative species, for 195 civilian and military patients who had travelled abroad. Most patients were affected by cutaneous leishmaniasis (CL) (n=185 patients), while visceral leishmaniasis (VL) (n=8 patients) and ...

In this paper, we present spatial analysis of the association between all incidents cases of human Visceral Leishmaniasis and seropositive dogs, from 1994 to 1997 in Belo Horizonte, a large Brazilian city. We geocoded 158 human cases and 11,048 seropositive dogs and compared canine prevalence rates with Human Bayesian Incidence rates in the same areas. We also used Knox's test to evaluate the h...

We describe a case of isolated primary laryngeal leishmaniasis in an immunocompetent Italian patient with a previous medical history negative for visceral or cutaneous leishmaniasis, presenting with hoarseness. We also summarize the epidemiological, clinical, and diagnostic features and the therapeutic management of other cases of laryngeal leishmaniasis in immunocompetent subjects, described i...

Among parasitic diseases, morbidity and mortality caused by leishmaniasis are surpassed only by malaria and lymphatic filariasis. However, estimation of the leishmaniasis disease burden is challenging, due to clinical and epidemiological diversity, marked geographic clustering, and lack of reliable data on incidence, duration, and impact of the various disease syndromes. Non-health effects such...

Large-scale field trials were performed in an endemic focus of cutaneous leishmaniasis in both urban and rural settlements of Sanliurfa City, SE Anatolia, Turkey, to evaluate the efficacy of insecticide impregnated bednets. An intervention field trial promoting the use of K-OTAB (deltamethrin-tablet formulation) impregnated bednets by the local inhabitants of five quarters for cutaneous leishma...

A vaccine against different forms of leishmaniasis should be feasible considering the wealth of information on genetics and biology of the parasite, clinical and experimental immunology of leishmaniasis, and the availability of vaccines that can protect experimental animals against challenge with different Leishmania species. However, there is no vaccine against any form of leishmaniasis for ge...

Leishmaniasis is a parasitic disease caused by various species of Leishmania, a unicellular kinetoplastid protozoan flagellate. It manifests mainly in 3 clinical forms; visceral leishmaniasis (VL), cutaneous leishmaniasis (CL) and mucocutaneous leishmaniasis (MCL), of which VL is the most severe form of the disease. VL is lethal if untreated and spontaneous cure is extremely rare. Cutaneous lei...

Leishmaniasis is a clinically heterogeneous syndrome caused by intracellular protozoan parasites of the genus Leishmania. The clinical spectrum of leishmaniasis encompasses subclinical (not apparent), localized (skin lesion), and disseminated (cutaneous, mucocutaneous, and visceral) infection. This spectrum of manifestations depends on the immune status of the host, on the parasite, and on immu...