Objectives: A rapid immunochromatographic dipstick test (ICT) has become available for the qualitative detection of anti-Leishmania antibody using recombinant rK39 antigen. This study was carried out at the department of Microbiology of Rajshahi Medical College, Bangladesh, in order to evaluate the diagnostic potential of immunochromatographic dipstick test. Methodology: A total of one hundred ...

Using a randomized study, we compared a daily and an alternate-day regimen of amphotericin B for the treatment of kala-azar, with respect to efficacy, adverse reactions, cost-effectiveness, and tolerance. The study subjects were 80 kala-azar patients, drawn from the first four decades of life and matched by age, sex, and parasite load. The patients were randomly allocated to treatment groups A ...

The diagnosis of visceral leishmaniasis (kala-azar) remains difficult in rural endemic areas and practical and reliable tests are badly needed. Two serological tests, the Direct Agglutination Test (DAT) and an rK39-antigen-based dipstick test, were compared to parasitological diagnosis in a group of 184 patients presenting at a tertiary care centre in south-eastern Nepal with a history of fever...

OBJECTIVE To compare a PCR assay and direct agglutination test (DAT) for the detection of potential markers of Leishmania infection in 231 healthy subjects living in a kala-azar endemic focus of Nepal. METHODS The sample was composed of 184 (80%) persons without any known history of KA and not living in the same house as known kala-azar cases (HNK), 24 (10%) Healthy Household Contacts (HHC) a...

From the records of the number of fresh cases of kala-azar in the different districts for the last thirty years (table II and the charts), it will be found that epidemics of kala-azar have occurred in different districts of Assam at intervals of about 7 to 10 years and have lasted for about ten years each time. The charts show two distinct epidemic waves during the last thirty years in Sibsagar...

Post-kala-azar dermal leishmaniasis (PKDL) is a dermatologic manifestation that usually occurs after visceral leishmaniasis (VL) caused by Leishmania donovani. It is characterized by hypopigmented patches, a macular or maculopapular rash and nodular skin lesions on the body surface. Involvement of the mucosae is very rare and unusual in PKDL. We report a case of PKDL that presented with polymor...

Sodium antimony gluconate (SAG) and miltefosine used in the treatment of kala-azar are known to cause several side effects but severe thrombocytopenia has not been reported. Four cases of severe thrombocytopenia, two caused by SAG and two by miltefosine were promptly detected and treated by immediate withdrawal of the offending drugs, platelet and blood transfusions and dexamethasone. After imp...

severe toxic reactions and, as such, small children, corpulent subjects and patients suffering from general anasarca, not an uncommon condition associated with kala-azar, could not be treated with urea stibamine. At the Annual General Meeting of the Assam and Northern Bengal Branch of the British Medical Association that was held in Shillong in November 1943, Shortt read an interesting paper de...