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...

In the 19(th) century, a devastating epidemic of visceral leishmaniasis (kala-azar) swept through northeast India. After identification of the pathogenic agent, Leishmania donovani, in 1903, the question of its transmission remained to be resolved. In 1904, thanks to work by L. Rogers on cultures of this parasite it became probable that a haematophagous arthropod was responsible for transmissio...

background: there are nearly 1000 species of phlebotomine sand flies in 6 genera, of which only two, phlebotomus in the old world and lutzomyia in the new world are medically important. globally, leishmaniasis prevalent in 98 countries and affects estimated 12 million people with almost two million new cases per year. some rural areas of azarshahr district in east azarbaijan province have been ...